han
apology from you. Candor for candor;--your whole story in return for
mine."

"I'm afraid it would be a trifle tedious,--my whole story," smiled Hazen.
"If you mean such part of it as concerns Georgian's peculiar actions and
the complications with which we are at this moment struggling, I can only
repeat what I have already told you, both at the St. Denis in New York
and here. I am Georgian's returned brother, saved from the jaws of hell
to see my own country again. I arrived in New York on the tenth.
Naturally, after securing a room at the hotel, I took up the papers. They
were full of the approaching marriage of Miss Hazen. I recognized my
sister's name, though not her splendor, for we were the sole survivors of
a poor country family and I knew nothing of the legacy I am now told she
received. Anxious to see her, I attended the ceremony. She recognized me.
I had not expected this, and feeling old affections revive, I followed
her friends to the house and was presented to them and to you. What
I whispered to her on this occasion were my assumed name and the place
where I was to be found. My changed countenance called for explanations,
for which a bridal reception offered no opportunity. Besides, as I have
already said, I stood in sore need of a definite amount of money. I meant
her to come and see me, but I did not expect her to play a trick on you
in order to do so. This had its birth in the to me unaccountable mystery
embodied in the girl you call Anitra, but whom I'm not ready yet to name.
For when I do, action must follow conviction and that without mercy or
delay."

"Action?" repeated Ransom, with quick suspicion and a confused rush of
contradictory visions in his mind. "What do you mean by that?"

Hazen covered his chin with his hand.

"I will try and explain," he replied. "If I am abrupt in my language, it
is owing to the exigencies of the case. I have no time to waste and no
disposition to whitewash a rough piece of work. To speak to the point, I
have an intense interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none in
my sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command of
money would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary,
could be nothing but a burden, unless--" here he cast a very sharp glance
at Ransom--"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate to
leave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made just
before her disappearance and suppos