d to sigh over the inequalities of fortune that wasted
opportunities on the less skillful scamp.

Mr. Gashwiler became dignified. "She can do nothing with us," he said
potentially.

Wiles turned his wicked eye on him. "Manuel and Miguel, who sold out to
our man, are afraid of her. They were our witnesses. I verily believe
they'd take back everything if she got after them. And as for Pedro, he
thinks she holds the power of life and death over him."

"Pedro! life and death,--what's all this?" said the astonished
Gashwiler.

Wiles saw his blunder, but saw also that he had gone too far to stop.
"Pedro," he said, "was strongly suspected of having murdered Concho, one
of the original locators."

Mr. Gashwiler turned white as a sheet, and then flushed again into an
apoplectic glow. "Do you dare to say," he began as soon as he could
find his tongue and his legs, for in the exercise of his congressional
functions these extreme members supported each other,--"do you mean to
say," he stammered in rising rage, "that you have dared to deceive
an American lawgiver into legislating upon a measure connected with a
capital offense? Do I understand you to say, sir, that murder stands
upon the record--stands upon the record, sir,--of this cause to which,
as a representative of Remus, I have lent my official aid? Do you mean
to say that you have deceived my constituency, whose sacred trust
I hold, in inveigling me to hiding a crime from the Argus eyes of
justice?" And Mr. Gashwiler looked towards the bell-pull as if about
to summon a servant to witness this outrage against the established
judiciary.

"The murder, if it WAS a murder, took place before Garcia entered upon
this claim, or had a footing in this court," returned Wiles blandly,
"and is no part of the record."

"You are sure it is not spread upon the record?"

"I am. You can judge for yourself."

Mr. Gashwiler walked to the window, returned to the table, finished his
liquor in a single gulp, and then, with a slight resumption of dignity,
said:

"That alters the case."

Wiles glanced with his left eye at the Congressman. The right placidly
looked out of the window. Presently he said quietly, "I've brought you
the certificates of stock; do you wish them made out in your own name?"

Mr. Gashwiler tried hard to look as if he were trying to recall the
meaning of Wiles's words. "Oh!--ah!--umph!--let me see,--oh, yes, the
certificates,--certainly! Of course you will make