"Jim!" she cried aghast. "They promised to kill the story."

"Humph! Charley Murphy himself couldn't kill that."

"What is--THIS?" She ran her eye swiftly down the column.

"Sure. Melcher commenced suit against Hammon this afternoon. Fifty
thousand dollars for alienation of Lilas's affections. Joke, eh?
He claims there was a common-law marriage and he'll get the coin."

"But Mrs. Hammon?"

"The evidence is in her hands already--dates, places, photographs,
everything. She'll win her suit, too."

"Why, it sounds like a--a deliberate plot. But I don't understand
who's behind it. What part did you have in it, Jim? Were you
helping Mr. Melcher in his blackmail scheme, or--" Another
possibility came to her--"Were you by any chance working for Mrs.
Hammon?"

Divining his sister's prejudice, Jim lied promptly and
convincingly. "Why, Mrs. Hammon, of course. I had a chance to turn
a few dollars, and I took it."

"But why did they drag me in? Couldn't you keep me out of it? This
is dreadful." As she ran her eye over the article she saw that it
was quite in harmony with the general tone and policy of the paper
which catered to the jaded throngs of the Tenderloin. Truth had