enough in the mud as it is, and
it will not be to my credit to mention my connection with Matlock
Styles."

"Yes, but Tom, you--you--Oh, how can I explain? Can't you trust me
when I tell you that I am speaking for your own good? I--I know many
things of which you are ignorant."

"Then why don't you tell me, Letty? Is it fair for you to keep silent?"

"No, but then you must remember that I am Mr. Adams' private clerk, and
he is working on this case in the interests of Miss Langmore."

"I know he is working for her and I hope he clears her. I always
thought she was a pretty nice kind of a girl, and I can't believe that
she is guilty."

"Tom, did you ever imagine they would think you were guilty?" and she
gazed at him earnestly, as If to search his very soul.

He started.

"Me? Why--why should anybody imagine I was guilty? It's--it's out of
all reason." He drew a quick breath. "Letty, do you mean to insinuate
that Mr. Adams imagines--"

"You mustn't ask me questions, Tom. But think over what you have told
me--of that letter your brother Dick wrote asking for money, and how
you visited the house on the very morning of the murder to get the
money, and how Mr. Langmore took the letter from your mother and tore
it in half, and the scene afterwards."

"Yes, I know. But--"

"And then think of the way by which Mr. Langmore and your mother died.
Killed by a curious poison, something that they inhaled, which, when
the doctor got a whiff of it, gave him cramps in the stomach--a curious
drug not generally known to medical science, a drug--"

He caught her by the wrist and looked fearfully, frightfully, into her
face.

"Letty! My God!"

A short silence followed and she saw that he was thinking, deeply,
swiftly. The cold perspiration stood out on his forehead but he did
not appear to notice it. He dropped her wrist and his hand fell as if
made of stone.

"Now you understand, Tom. I--I am speaking for I--I--want you to clear
yourself."

"Then it has gone as far as this?" He gave a groan. "It was that
drug--Letty, are you sure they have found out about that drug?"

"Yes, but do not say I said so."

"That drug is accursed--a Chinese student told me so. I laughed at him
then, but now I believe it. The first time I carried it around with me
I was wrecked in a railroad accident and had my arm hurt. Then, two
weeks later, when I had it with me, I got caught in that hotel fire in
Buffalo. After tha