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 springs into her eyes. She rises to her feet, her hands clenched.

"Who told you I received a letter?" she demands in a trembling voice.

"We newspaper men have many means of obtaining information," replies Ashley.

"Mr. Ashley," the girl says—she is quite calm now—"I appreciate your efforts fully and thank you for them. God grant that they may be crowned with success. As for my sister's letter, I cannot show it to you, as I have destroyed it. Its contents I shall never reveal."

"I shall hope to see you again before I leave Raymond," remarks Ashley, as he rises to take his leave; for the interview has reached its natural limits.

"I am at home to you at any time," responds Miss Hathaway, acknowledging gravely his pleasant adieu.

As Ashley saunters back to the hotel his mind is in a more bewildered condition than at any other time since he has begun work on the Hathaway case.

"Now that I am in it, I shall stay, if it occupies the rest of my natural life," he determines. "What a magnificent young woman! Fortunate that I am not susceptible, else I should already be idiotically in love with this queen of the morning, whose sad blue eyes haunt me still, in the words of the old song."

Oh, the self-sufficiency of youth!

CHAPTER X.

MR. BARKER'S DISCOVERIES.

After supper Ashley retreats to the most secluded corner of the veranda and amuses himself blowing smoke rings over the railing. Barker has been gone ever since morning. He must have struck a warm trail. Twilight gathers ere Ashley beholds the familiar figure swinging down the street toward the hotel.