almost too interested listener.

The others were chatting when Zita heard a noise in the hall and hurried
out. She was just in time to see a rather hard-visaged man, with cruel,
penetrating eyes. It was Herbert Balcom, vice-president of the company.

Zita whispered to him a moment and Balcom's hard face grew harder.

"Go up-stairs--watch _him_," he ordered, passing down the hall.

Balcom entered the library just as Davis was about to leave, hugging
close to him his brain child. Davis clutched it a bit closer at sight of
the other partner.

A glance would have been sufficient to show that Brent was secretly
afraid of his partner, Balcom, and that Balcom dominated him.

"Go to the gate with him, my dear," whispered Brent to his daughter, who
was clinging to his arm, convinced of the goodness of her father,
ignorant of the very basis on which the Brent and Balcom fortune rested.

Balcom's mouth tightened as he came closer to Brent, menacing, the
moment they were alone.

"How long has this double crossing been going on?" sneered Balcom,
jerking his head toward the door through which Eva had just gone with
the inventor, and shoving his face close to Brent's.

"It's not double crossing, Balcom," Brent attempted to conciliate,
"but--"