"Where did he bank? They might have his full name."

"Bank of California, but his remittances were sent to order of J. Horace

Medford, and, of course, he signed his cheques the same way."

"That sounds the most likely of the lot--and the most hopeful."

"Well, haven't handed you the fifth yet, and to my mind she's the most

likely of all. Ever hear of James Lawton's trouble with his wife?"

"Trouble? I thought she died."

"She--did--not. She went East suddenly about fifteen years ago, and soon

after a notice of her death appeared in the San Francisco papers. But

there was a tale of woe (for old Lawton) that I doubt if most of her own

crowd had even a suspicion of."

"Good heavens!" Ruyler recalled the apparent intimacy of his

mother-in-law and the senior member of the respectable firm of Lawton and

Cross. If "Madame Delano" were the former Mrs. Lawton, how many things

would be explained.

"This woman's name was Marie all right, and she was French, although she

seems to have been adopted by some people named Dubois and brought up in

California. She was quite the proper thing in high society, but the

trouble was that she liked another sort better. She was a regular

fly-by-night. It began when Norton Moore, a rotten limb of one of the

grandest trees in San Francisco Society--so respectable they didn't know

there was any side to life but their own--sneaked Mrs. Lawton and three

girls out of his mother's house one night when she was givin' a ball, put

'em in a hack and took 'em down to Gabrielle's. There they spent an hour

lookin' at Gabrielle's swell bunch dressed up and doin' the grand society

act with some of the men-about-town. Then they danced some and opened a

bottle or two.

"I never heard that this little jaunt hurt the girls any, but it woke up

something in Mrs. Lawton. After that--well, there are stories without

end. Won't take up your time tellin' them. The upshot was that one night

Lawton, who took a fling himself once in a while, met her at Gabrielle's

or some other joint, and she went East a day or two after. I suppose he

didn't get a divorce, partly on account of the kid--Aileen--partly

because he had no intention of trying his luck again."

"But is there any evidence that she had another child--that she

hid away?"

"No, but it might easy have been. This life went on for about eight

years, and it was at least five that she and Lawton merely lived under

the same roof for the sake of Aileen. They never did get on. That much,

at least, was well known. It might easy be--"




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