document, that he is lying by. If, on the other hand, his illness is
genuine, and he were, to put it bluntly, to die, that paper would be
discovered by his lawyer, and Heaven knows what he would do with it!"

"I am beginning to understand," Stella said. "Now please tell me where I
come in."

"We are willing," Littleson said quietly, "to give a hundred thousand
dollars to the person who places that paper in our charge. To any one
who knew your father's house, and where he keeps his important
documents, the task would not be an impossible one."

She looked at him fixedly for several moments. He was half afraid that
she was going to get up and leave him. Instead, however, she broke into
a hard little laugh, and helped herself to another cigarette.

"You forget," she said, "that I have no longer the entrée to my father's
house."

"It would be perfectly easy for you," he answered, "to go there,
especially with your father out of the way upstairs. I presume that you
know where he keeps his important papers?"

"Yes! I know that," she answered. "It is a pity," she added, with a
faint smile upon her lips, "that those burglars didn't, isn't it?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"A clumsy effort that, of course," he admitted, "especially when your
father has a detective always round the place. He is well guarded, but I