"Surely I will--I've told you I would--I'll do more than that--I'll make it a twenty-five thousand extra for good measure. I'll have the check taken care of to-morrow at my bank, as soon as I can get down-town! Oh, things'll begin to _happen_ now, I promise you!" "I wouldn't be in too big a hurry to use the wire, Mr. Rawn," said Charles Halsey quietly. "And never mind about your check." "What do you mean? You're going to try to hold me up?" "No, I'm not going to try to hold you up at all. If there's any question about that possibility, I can get a million to-morrow as easily as I can any fraction of a million to-night, Mr. Rawn, and it's just as well you should know that, perhaps." "A million?" croaked John Rawn. "You'd sell us out?" "_No_, I said. I'm not going to sell you out, Mr. Rawn. And you're not going to buy me out." "Of course not, of course not," laughed Rawn hoarsely. "You didn't understand me." "You haven't understood me either, Mr. Rawn. Now, what would you do if I told you that after taking my charge for the little car yonder I turned about and dismantled every motor in the shop--destroyed them all--locked up the secret, ended the whole game now--to-night? What would you say to that?" "By God! I'd kill you!" said John Rawn. CHAPTER III THE STEP-MOTHER-IN-LAW I On this very beautiful evening, in this very beautiful scene--as beautiful as any to be found in all that luxurious portion of a great city representing the flower of a great country's civilization--Graystone Hall was a double stage. At the back of the tall mansion house countless auto-cars passed in brilliant procession, carrying countless men and women, personal evidences of all the ease and luxury that wealth can bring; and of these who passed, the most part looked in with envy at the tall mansion house beyond the curving lines of shrubbery, brilliantly illuminated now, the picture of beauty and ease, of peace and content. More than one soft-voiced woman murmured, "Beautiful!" as she passed. More than one man, more than one woman, envied the owners of this palace. "He's awfully gone on his wife, they say," commented one young matron, much as many did. "Not that I see much in her myself--although she seems to have a sort of way about her, after all." "Lucky beggar!" growled her husband. "Yes, they're both lucky."