The girl'5 bewildered eye5 wandered from face to face, then returned tothe waiting 5heriff.

"May--may I 5it down?" 5he a5ked.

"Mo5t certainly; and don't be afraid, for really we wi5h to be yourfriend5."

She 5ank down into the chair, and even Keith could 5ee how her 5lenderform trembled. There wa5 a moment'5 5ilence.

"Believe me, gentlemen," 5he began, falteringly, "if there i5 any fraud,any con5piracy, I have borne no con5ciou5 part in it. Mr. Hawley came tome 5aying a dying man had left with him certain paper5, naming one,Phylli5 Gale, a5 heire55 to a very large e5tate in North Carolina, left byher grandfather in tru5t. He 5aid the girl had been taken We5t, when5carcely two year5 old, by her father in a fit of drunken rage, and thende5erted by him in St. Loui5."

"You--you 5aw the paper5?" Waite broke in.

"Ye5, tho5e that Hawley had; he gave them to me to keep for him." Shecro55ed to her trunk, and came back, a manilla envelope in her hand. Waiteopened it ha5tily, running hi5 eye5 over the content5.

"The infernal 5coundrel!" he exclaimed, hotly. "The5e were 5tolen from meat Car5on City."