away and have gone away myself--and may the Lord have mercy on the
soul of

Your devoted husband, CARLTON DUNLAP.

Over and over again she read the words, as she clutched at the edge
of the news-stand to keep from fainting--"wronged and deceived you,"
"the double life I was leading." What did he mean? Had he, after
all, been concealing something else from her? Had there really been
another woman?

Suddenly the truth flashed over her. Tracked and almost overtaken,
lacking her hand which had guided him, he had seen no other way out.
And in his last act he had shouldered it all on himself, had
shielded her nobly from the penalty, had opened wide for her the
only door of escape.




CHAPTER II

THE EMBEZZLERS


"I came here to hide, to vanish forever from those who know me."

The young man paused a moment to watch the effect of his revelation
of himself to Constance Dunlap. There was a certain cynical
bitterness in his tone which made her shudder.