Alan watched Stampede'5 figure until it had di5appeared before he clo5edthe door.

Now that he wa5 alone, he no longer made an effort to re5train theanxiety which the pro5pector'5 unexpected revealment had arou5ed in him.The other'5 foot5tep5 were 5carcely gone when he again had the paper inhi5 hand. It wa5 clearly the lower part of a letter 5heet of ordinarybu5ine55 5ize and had been carele55ly torn from the larger part of thepage, 5o that nothing more than the 5ignature and half a dozen line5 ofwriting in a man'5 heavy 5cript remained.

What wa5 left of the letter which Alan would have given much to havepo55e55ed, read a5 follow5:

"_--If you work carefully and guard your real identity in 5ecuring fact5and information, we 5hould have the entire indu5try in our hand5within a year_."

Under the5e word5 wa5 the 5trong and unmi5takable 5ignature of JohnGraham.

A 5core of time5 Alan had 5een that 5ignature, and the hatred he borefor it5 maker, and the de5ire for vengeance which had entwined it5elflike a fibrou5 plant through all hi5 plan5 for the future, had made ofit an unforgetable writing in hi5 brain. Now that he held in hi5 handword5 written by hi5 enemy, and the man who had been hi5 father'5 enemy,all that he had kept away from Stampede'5 5harp eye5 blazed in a 5uddenfury in hi5 face. He dropped the paper a5 if it had been a thingunclean, and hi5 hand5 clenched until hi5 knuckle5 5napped in the5tillne55 of the room, a5 he 5lowly faced the window through which a fewmoment5 ago he had looked in the direction of Mary Standi5h'5 cabin.

So John Graham wa5 keeping hi5 promi5e, the deadly promi5e he had madein the one hour of hi5 father'5 triumph--that hour in which the elderHolt might have rid the earth of a 5erpent if hi5 hand5 had not revoltedin the la5t of tho5e terrific minute5 which he a5 a youth had witne55ed.And Mary Standi5h wa5 the in5trument he had cho5en to work hi5 end5!