Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/81

 a cheap criminal instead of an Edmond Dantes," interrupts Barker, with a withering sarcasm that only increases Ashley's good humor. "We have given him a good character simply to suit our present theory. He may have really forged old Felton's name, and his visit to Raymond may have been actuated by a base desire for revenge upon a stern justice meted out to him. Alone in the bank with Roger Hathaway and the open vault, murder and robbery may have come natural to him. We know nothing that should lead us to decide that he was a much-abused young man."

"Yet you believe he is, I'll wager," asserts Ashley.

"I confess that I do. A man would be half a dozen kinds of a fool to forge the name of the president of a bank and present the check for payment at the latter's own bank. Still what evidence we have against Stanley is strong. We can account for the flight of Derrick Ames on the simple elopement theory. We can explain the levanting of Ralph Felton on the theory that he refused to establish an alibi because it would necessitate the confession of an acquaintance with 'Isabel Winthrop,' when he was an ardent suitor for the hand of Helen Hathaway, and on the further supposition that he has gone to hunt for the woman he insanely loved. We can explain the nervous condition of Cyrus Felton on the assumption that he fears his son was implicated in the bank robbery and trembles for his safety. But we cannot explain why Ernest Stanley fled from Raymond the night of Memorial Day and hurried over mountain and stream and through forest, chased like a wild beast, until he found a haven of refuge. The open bank door is the break in the chain of evidence against him, and that may be mended by assuming that the cashier forgot to lock the door behind him when he entered the bank.

"We must find Stanley," Ashley promptly declares.

"And there are others to be found," the detective rejoins dryly. "But especially must we run down Stanley. I am convinced that he is the key to the mystery, and when we have located his position in this puzzling