as not likely to occur. He knew his own
persistency to equal Hazen's. Nothing should stop the momentary interview
he had promised himself.

Ah! A well-known whirr and clatter is heard. The automobile was leaving
the stable. Hazen was already in it and the man who had come up from New
York was with him. This was bad; they would flash by--No; he would not be
balked thus. Stepping out into the road, he stopped full in the glare of
the office lights and held up his hand. They could not but see him and
they did. The chauffeur reversed the lever and the machine stopped to
the accompaniment of low muttered oaths from Hazen, which were rather
disagreeable than otherwise to Harper's ear.

"One word," said he, approaching to the side where Hazen sat. "I thought
you ought to know before leaving that we can take no proceedings in the
matter we were speaking of till we have undisputed proof that your sister
is dead. That we may not get for a long time, possibly never. If you are
interested in having this Auchincloss receive his inheritance, you had
better prepare both yourself and him for a long wait. The river seems
slow to give up its dead."

The quiver of impatience which had shaken Hazen at the first word had
settled into a strange rigidity.

"One moment," he said in a command to the chauffeur at his side. Then in
a low, strangely sounding whisper to Harper: "They think the body's in
the Devil's Cauldron. Nothing can get it out if it is. Would some proof
of its presence there be sufficient to settle the fact of her death?"

"That would depend. If the proof was unmistakable, it might pass in the
Surrogate's Court. What is the matter, Hazen?"

"Nothing." The tone was hollow; the whole man sat like an image of death.
"I--I'm thinking--weighing--" he uttered in scattered murmurs. Then
suddenly, "You're not deceiving me, Harper. Some proof will be necessary,
and that very soon, for this man Auchincloss to realize the money?"

"Yes," the monosyllable was as dry as it was short. Harper's patience
with this unnatural brother was about at an end.

"And who will venture to obtain this proof for us? No one. Not even
Ransom would venture down into that watery hole. They say it is almost
certain death," babbled Hazen.

Harper kept silence. Strange forces were at work. The head of another
gruesome tragedy loomed vaguely through the shadows of this already
sufficiently tragic mystery.

"Go on!" suddenly shouted Hazen, leaning forwar