reasons. In the first place, as perhaps you
know, my brother, Dick, is a spendthrift, and works occasionally only.
He got into a scrape in Los Angeles, and telegraphed me to help him out
financially. It was an old plea, but I thought if I left him to himself
my mother would not forgive me. I did not have money enough to help him
by myself, for my capital was tied up in such a fashion that I could not
get at it. More than that, I had in my possession two one hundred dollar
bills, which my mother had gotten from Mr. Langmore, and both of these
were counterfeits."

"One of those bills you had tried to pass at a theatre, eh?"

"Ha! You know that, too! Then you have been following me up?"

"The United States Government has been trying to follow up those bills
for several years."

"I came to the house and saw my mother. Mr. Langmore had gone to the
bank. There had been a family row, but that was not all of the trouble.
Mr. Langmore was strangely excited, so my mother said, and had declared
he was going to have somebody arrested, before the week was out."

"On account of the counterfeits?"

"Either that, or on account of a patent. She said he had sent off
several letters and was also going to telegraph to somebody. She said he
had asked her to give back the hundred dollar bills, and had been much
disturbed when she told him that I had them. She took the bills back and
gave me good money for them, and also gave me two hundred dollars more,
to forward to my brother Dick, which I did, adding a hundred of my own."

"Did your mother tell you anything more about the counterfeits?"

"No."

"Did you see Miss Langmore?"

"I did not, nor did I see the servant. I was in a hurry, and so I came
away as soon as my business was accomplished."

"When you came away from the house and dropped your hat, did you go back
again, crawling along by the bushes?"

"I certainly did not."

"Did you see any other man around?"

"Not there. I caught a glimpse of a man when I was hurrying through the
woods to the station."

"When you came to the house, after the tragedy, Mr. Ostrello, what were
you so anxious about?"

"You mean what was I looking for?"

"Yes."

"A letter Dick had sent me. It told about his trouble. I thought at
first it might be in the library, but I found it in my mother's room. It
contained an account of the scandal he had gotten into. I did not wish
that scandal to become public property. I can sho