It served to conceal his emotions as effectively as a mask.

Leslie sprang to her feet and stared hard at the rag, with a fascinated look. She had unconsciously clasped her hands together, and there was a look of fright in her eyes.

"Now do you see?" she cried. "That's the sort of thing we have to expect all the time."

Burton crushed the kerchief in his hand. "A very crude device. Your committee would have to be very special fools to believe that a man would preserve such a damning piece of evidence when there was a fireplace in the room, and matches were presumably within reach. Shall I burn it up?"

"No," said Dr. Underwood suddenly. "Give it to me. I feel in honor bound to show it to the committee and tell them just how and where it was found."

Burton shrugged his shoulders. "I am rather inclined to believe that you need a business manager, my dear Dr. Quixote."

The door opened and the gray-haired woman whom Burton had seen reading in the garden entered the room. Her composure was so insistent that Burton felt suddenly convicted of foolish excitability.

"Mrs. Bussey understood that you had been hurt," she said, going up to the couch and looking down calmly at the doctor.

Dr. Underwood squirmed. "Yes, Angelica, some sin or other has found me out, I suppose, for I have hurt my ankle. This is Mr. Burton, who happened to be on hand to take the place of Providence."

Mrs. Underwood acknowledged Burton's bow with a slight inclination of the head, but with no slightest indication of curiosity. She sat down beside her husband's couch and thoughtfully placed her finger on his pulse.

"Land of the living, Angelica, my ankle hasn't gone to my heart," muttered Dr. Underwood, with some impatience.

Leslie spoke aside to Burton.

"What can we do? It isn't this thing only; this is just an instance. You don't know how horrible it is to have the feeling that some enemy is watching you in the dark. And my father is not practical,--you see that. We have no friends left!"

"That is not so," he said quickly.

"You mean that you will help him?" she asked eagerly. "Oh, if you would! There is no one to whom I can turn for 

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