"If a private company could get hold of the water-works, the system would not only be richly profitable at once, but it would be worth a fortune as the city grows. Now if a company, a clever company, wanted to buy in the water-works, what would be their first move?" "To make an offer, I suppose." "Never! Their first step would be to try to make the people want to sell. And how would they try to make the people want to sell?" "Why--why----" "By making the water-works fail!" Her excitement was mounting; she caught his shoulders. "Fail so badly that the people would be disgusted, just as they now are, and willing to sell at any price. And now, father--and now, father--" he could feel her quivering all over--"listen to me! We're coming to the point! How would they make the water-works fail?" He could only blink at her. "They'd make it fail by removing from office, and so disgracing him that everything he had done would be discredited, the one incorruptible man whose care and knowledge had made it a success! Don't you see, father? Don't you see?" "Bless me," said the old man, "if I know what you're talking about!" "With you out of the way, whom they knew they could not corrupt, they could buy under officials to attend to the details of making the water bad and the plant itself a failure--just exactly what has been done. You are not the real victim. You are just an obstruction--something that they had to get out of the way. The real victim is Westville! It's a plan to rob the city!" His gray eyes were catching the light that blazed from hers. "I begin to see," he said. "It hardly seems possible people would do such things. But perhaps you're right. What are you going to do?" "Fight!" "Fight?" He looked admiringly at her glowing figure. "But if there is a strong company behind all this, for you to fight it alone--it will be an awful big fight!" "I don't care how big the fight is!" she cried exultantly. "What has almost broken my heart till now is that there has been no one to fight!" A shadow fell on the old man's face. "But after all, Katherine, it is all only a guess." "Of course it is only a guess!" she cried. "But I have tested every other possible solution. This is the only one left, and it fits every known circumstance of the case. It is only a guess--but I'll stake my life on its being the right guess!" Her voice rose. "Oh, father, we're on the right track at last! We're going to clear you! Don't you ever doubt that. We're going to clear you!" There was no resisting the ringing confidence in her voice, the fire of her enthusiasm. "Katherine!" he cried, and opened his arms. She rushed into them. "We're going to clear you, father! And, oh, won't it be fine! Won't it be fine!" For a space they held each other close, then they parted. "What are you going to do first?" he asked. "Try to find the person, or corporation, behind the scheme." "And how will you do that?"