start which caused his companion to regard him curiously.

"Great Scott!" he exclaimed, in vehement excitement, as he bent to examine the coin more closely, "this is the strangest thing that ever happened to me in all my experience!"

CHAPTER IV. A MYSTERY EXPLAINED.

Mr. Knowles regarded his companion with undisguised astonishment.

"Is there anything wrong about the money?" he inquired, a gleam of anxiety in his eyes.

"Pardon me," said Royal Bryant, flushing, as he was thus recalled to himself; "you are justified in asking the question, and I trust you will not regard me as impertinently inquisitive if I inquire if you can remember from whom you received this piece of money."

"Certainly I remember," Mr. Knowles replied, but flushing painfully in his turn at the question.

"Will you kindly tell me the name of the person from whom you took it?"

Mr. Knowles appeared even more embarrassed than before and hesitated about replying.

"I have a special and personal reason for asking you," Mr. Bryant continued. "See!" he added, holding the gold-piece before him where the light struck full upon it, "you perceive this coin is marked," and he pointed out some vertical scratches which had been made just inside the margin. "I made those marks myself."

"Can that be possible!" exclaimed his companion, astonished.

"Yes. This very piece of money was in my possession as late as five o'clock last Saturday afternoon."

"I cannot understand," said Mr. Knowles, looking mystified.

"Let me explain," returned Mr. Bryant. "I owed my copyist exactly five dollars, and, having nothing smaller in bills than tens, I was obliged to pay her with this coin. While she was getting ready to leave the office, I sat toying with it and scratched it, as you see, with the point of my penknife; then I gave it to Miss Allandale and thought no more about the matter. But just before you came in this morning, I received a note from her saying she had been arrested for passing the coin with which I had paid her, it having been declared counterfeit, and she begged me to come at once to her assistance and try to prove her innocence. I was just on the point of doing so when you called."

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