time of its execution there was an agreement between Allen and Stephens & Blennerhassett that it should be withheld from record, and that between the time of its execution and the time that it was recorded Stephens & Blennerhassett represented that Allen was solvent and possessed of large properties in real estate, and they caused him to be rated by the commercial bureaus of the country as worth one million dollars, and at the same time knew that he was in fact insolvent, and this defense was held to be abundantly proved by the testimony taken in the case, and the supreme court of the United States decided that as against the creditors and the assignee in bankruptcy the mortgage was absolutely void. After the original petition was filed for the foreclosure of the mortgage I filed a supplemental bill making the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company the plaintiff and Hoyt Sherman, the assignee in bankruptcy, the respondent. After several months had elapsed from the time the suit was begun I concluded to make a personal visit to Blennerhassett & Stephens, of New York City, and try to understand the real situation and facts in the case. I spent some two weeks interviewing the two men who constituted the firm, but for some reason not known to me I never could obtain from them any very accurate account or reliable statement of the facts necessary to be understood to make the proper presentation of the case. Mr. Blennerhassett especially appeared to be a very peculiar man and his desire for concealment amounted to a controlling passion. The books of the firm of Allen, Stephens & Co. had locks upon their lids and Blennerhassett carried the key. No attempt was made to inform me of the detail of the transaction between them and the Cook County Bank, and I never became fully advised as to these matters except as they were developed by the testimony afterwards taken. The evidence showed that the correspondence between the house in New York and Mr. Allen was carried on by means of a cipher or fictitious word. Allen was represented as "head," Blennerhassett as "arm," and Stephens as "leg" of some imaginary person. The transmission of the mortgage itself to Chicago in a sealed package with sealed instructions, and the manner in which the business was transacted were well calculated to excite suspicion, or in other words give the impression that there was something that it was necessary to conceal. That Allen was insolvent and had been for several years prior to his actual failure the testimony left no doubt, and the manner in which he conducted his business in connection with the house in New York was overwhelming proof that the parties knew that he could not promptly meet his pecuniary obligations. The real interested party in the transaction was the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company. Mr. White, the vice-president, proved to be under the influence of Blennerhassett and obtained the money of the company in matters of loan