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it. Should a guy like that be allowed to hang around Lila Williams?”
    Dumain sighed.
    “We are none of us pairfect,” he observed.
    “Oh, the devil!” exclaimed Sherman, exasperated. “Perhaps not. I guess neither you nor me is going to publish our diaries. But that isn’t the point. To put it plainly, I happen to know that Miss Williams is in love with this Knowlton, and that he fully intends to take advantage of it. You know what that means.”
    Dumain appeared to be lost in thought.
    “But what can we do?” he said finally.
    “The same as we’ve done to a dozen others.”
    “But zis Knowlton—he is no coward.”
    “There are six of us,” said Sherman meaningly.
    Dumain rose from his chair with a gesture of decision.
    “I speak to Dougherty and Driscoll,” he said as he turned to go.
    Sherman watched him cross the lobby.
    “The little idiot!” he muttered contemptuously. Then he turned his eyes toward Lila’s desk.
    As he gazed at her his face burned with desire and his eyes glittered like the eyes of the serpent. Slowly they filled with evil exultation. Then, subduing this outward betrayal of his thoughts, he crossed to her desk, halted uncertainly, and finally reached for a telegram blank.
    “You have decided to give me some of your patronage?” Lila smiled.
    “Yes,” Sherman replied. “Only it won’t be in code.”
    A tinge of color appeared in Lila’s cheeks, and a pang of jealousy that stung Sherman’s heart made him regret the observation. He placed the telegram blank on the top of the desk and after a minute’s thought wrote on it as follows:
    MR. GERALD HAMILTON,
    President of the Warton National
    Bank, Warton, Ohio.
    In case you wish to find John Norton, try the Hotel Lamartine, New York.
    W. S.
    Lila smiled as she read it.
    “You newspaper men are so mysterious,” she observed. Then suddenly she turned slightly pale and glanced up quickly.
    “She’s noticed the similarity in the names,” thought Sherman.
    “Why?” he said aloud. “Is there anything so mysterious about that?”
    “It sounds like a missing heir or a—an embezzler,” said Lila.
    “I’m sorry I can’t enlighten you.”
    “Oh, I wouldn’t expect you to. I suppose you’re full of important and terrible secrets.”
    “Perhaps.” Sherman hesitated a moment, then added: “But there’s only one that I regard as important.”
    Lila was silent.
    “It is about you,” Sherman continued.
    “About me?” Lila’s tone was incredulous.
    “About you,” Sherman repeated. His tone was low and significant as he added, “and me.”
    His meaning was too clear to admit of any pretense that it was not understood. For a moment Lila’s face was lowered, then she raised it and said firmly: “Mr. Sherman, I do not wish you to talk to me—like—that.”
    “I can’t help it. You know it, anyway. I love you.” Sherman’s voice trembled with desire.
    “Must I tell you that you annoy me?” she said, rising to her feet.
    Sherman lost control of himself.
    “You wouldn’t say that to Mr. John Knowlton,” he sneered. “And the time will come when you can’t say it to me. I want you. Look at me. Do I look like a man who wouldn’t take what he wants? You will—you must be mine.”
    The unexpectedness of it caused Lila’s face to turn a fiery red. Then she as suddenly became pale. For a moment neither spoke. They had no words; for Sherman had no sooner spoken than he regretted the rashness of his premature avowal. Lila was the first to recover herself.
    “Mr. Sherman,” she said calmly, “if you ever speak to me in this way again I shall tell Mr. Dougherty and Mr. Driscoll that you are annoying me. Now go.”
    And Sherman went.

CHAPTER IV.
Danger
    D UMAIN PONDERED LONG OVER THE INFORMATION Sherman had given him concerning Knowlton before he decided to act on it.
    The fact is that Dumain was strongly opposed to the revealing of a man’s past. He may have had a personal reason for this; but let us be charitable.