assed her girlhood.

Seeing her agitation, Locke undertook to interrogate the doctor.

"Doctor Q," he began, "I believe you know the perpetrator of the crimes
to which we have all been subjected, and we have come to you in all
friendliness to ask you to clear this mystery up for us. Balcom is
dead," added Locke, pointedly.

"Yes, I know that," interrupted Doctor Q.

"You know?" all asked. "How do you know?"

The doctor told of having seen Balcom's body. But at first he could not
explain why he was in the spot at the time.

Then Locke went on to tell him of the document that Paul had shown to
Zita.

Doctor Q sank heavily into a chair.

"That document that Paul Balcom showed Zita," he exclaimed, after a
moment, "told the truth."

All were startled. Zita would have risen with a cry had not Locke gently
touched her arm.

"Tell us the story," demanded Locke of Q.

For some moments Doctor Q seemed to be collecting his scattered
thoughts, as though still a haze hung over his mind. Then he began to
speak, becoming more certain of his strange story.

"It was many years ago," he began, as all drew closer about him,
listening breathlessly to his narrative, "and all these years I have
been quite mad. The man now lying dead, Balcom, was the cause of all
these years of misery."

The old man passed his hand over his head as though to wipe away a
recollection of hate and fear, then resumed:

"I was an inventor in those days, and very successful. I had built up a
great fortune, had built a great house, and in that house I had a
beautiful wife and two of the loveliest children, a boy and a girl, that
ever man had."

He paused again, then went on:

"One day, a man entered my life and proposed to put my inventions on the
market very advantageously. He was suave, polished, and apparently a
gentleman. At any rate, I trusted him. You all knew him. It was Herbert
Balcom.

"At the time I did not know that in order to give my inventions a clear
field the inventions of hundreds of poor inventors were to be
suppressed. I know now, Miss Brent, that your own father was led along
in the scheme, even as I was. Balcom possessed the master mind and we
were all as children in his hands."

Doctor Q stopped a moment. It was evident that he was speaking with
restraint when it came to Peter Brent, perhaps glossing over what the
man had done. Though he did not say so, the mere fact that at last Brent
had seen the light and had planned