ically I looked at my watch. It was precisely
eight. Kennedy had evidently prolonged the test for a purpose.

"The person whom you suspected," he repeated firmly, "is innocent!"

A moment Agatha stood there, then as the thing dawned on her, she
uttered one cry, "Judson!"

She reeled as Kennedy with a quick step or two caught her.

Seabury himself seemed dazed.

"And I have--" he ejaculated, then stopped.

Kennedy raised his hand. "Just a moment, please," he interrupted, as he
placed Mrs. Seabury in a chair, then glanced hastily at his watch.

She saw the motion and seemed suddenly to realize that it was nearing
the time for Sherburne to call up. With a mighty effort she seemed to
grip herself. She had just been shocked to know that she was charged
unjustly. But had she been cleared from one peril only to fall a victim
to another--the one she already feared? Was Sherburne to escape, after
all, and ruin her?

The telephone tinkled insistently. Kennedy seized the receiver.

"Who is it?" we heard him ask. "Mr. Sherburne--oh yes."

Mrs. Seabury paled at the name. I saw her shoot a covert glance at her
husband, and was relieved to see that his face betrayed as yet no
recognition of the name. She turned and listened to Kennedy, straining
her ears to catch every syllable and interpret every scrap of the
one-sided conversation.

Quickly Craig had jammed the receiver down on a little metal base which
we had not noticed near the instrument. Three prongs reaching upward
from the base engaged the receiver tightly, fitting closely about it.
Then he took up a watch-case receiver to listen through, in place of the
regular receiver.

"Sherburne, you say?" he repeated. "H. Morgan Sherburne?"

Apparently the voice at the other end of the wire replied rather
peevishly, for Kennedy endeavored to smooth over the delay. We waited
impatiently as he reiterated the name. Why was he so careful about it?
The moments were speeding fast and Mrs. Seabury found the suspense
terrific.

"Must pay--we'll never get anything on you?" Craig repeated after a few
moments further parley. "Very well. I am commissioned to meet you there
in ten minutes and settle the thing up on those terms," he concluded as
he clapped the regular receiver back on its hook with a hasty good-by
and faced us triumphantly.

"The deuce I won't get anything. I've got it!" he exclaimed.

Judson Seabury was too stunned by the revelation that he had a cancer to
follow