During the recital that followed somewhat later David did not move. He

sat silent, his eyes closed, his face set.

"That's about all," Bassett finished. "He had been perfectly clear in

his head all day, and it took headwork to get over the pass. But, as I

say, he had simply dropped ten years, and was back to the Lucas trouble.

I tried everything I knew, used your name and would have used the young

lady's, because sometimes that sort of thing strikes pretty deep, but

I didn't know it. He was convinced after a while, but he was dazed, of

course. He knew it, that is, but he couldn't comprehend it.

"I was done up, and I've cursed myself for it since, but I must have

slept like the dead. I wakened once, early in the night, and he was

still sitting by the fire, staring at it. I've forgotten to say that he

had been determined all day to go back and give himself up, and the only

way I prevented it was by telling him what a blow it would be to you and

to the girl. I wakened once and said to him, 'Better get some sleep, old

man.' He did not answer at once, and then he said, 'All right.' I was

dozing off when he spoke again. He said, 'Where is Beverly Carlysle now?

Has she married again?' 'She's revived "The Valley," and she's in New

York with it,' I told him.

"When I wakened in the morning he was gone, but he'd left a piece of

paper in a cleft stick beside me, with directions for reaching the

railroad, and--well, here it is."

Bassett took from his pocket-book a note, and passed it over to David,

who got out his spectacles with shaking hands and read it. It was on

Dick's prescription paper, with his name at the top and the familiar Rx

below it. David read it aloud, his voice husky.

"Many thanks for everything, Bassett," he read. "I don't like to leave

you, but you'll get out all right if you follow the map on the back

of this. I've had all night to think things out, and I'm leaving you

because you are safer without me. I realize now what you've known all

day and kept from me. That woman at the hotel recognized me, and they

are after me.

"I can't make up my mind what to do. Ultimately I think I'll go back and

give myself up. I am a dead man, anyhow, to all who might have cared,

but I've got to do one or two things first, and I want to think things

over. One thing you've got a right to know. I hated Lucas, but it never

entered my head to kill him. How it happened God only knows. I don't."




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