"What's the good, Mark? If he does know, he gets lockjaw at the first
word. I've tried----"

"There's one thing we haven't tried. Old Honeycutt is as greedy a miser
as ever gloated over a pile of hoardings. We'll get a thousand
dollars--five thousand, if necessary--in hard gold coin, if we have to
rob the mint for it. You'll spread it on the table in his kitchen.
You'll let it chink and you'll let some of it drop and roll. If that
won't buy the knowledge we want----But it will!"

"I've known the time when five thousand wasn't as much money as it is
right now, Mark----"

"I've got it, if I scrape deep. And I'll dig down to the bottom."

"And if we draw a blank?"

But there was a step at the door, the knob was turning. Mark King
turned, utterly unconscious of the quick stiffening of his body as he
awaited the introduction to Ben's wife.




_Chapter IV_


At first, King was taken aback by Mrs. Ben's youthfulness. Or look of
youth, as he understood presently. He knew that she was within a few