“That will do, Shylock,” cautioned Murray. “There is nothing to be said except ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and only thirty seconds in which to say that. I’ve reached the limit of my patience.” He took out his watch and began to count the seconds. * * * * * When they were gone Murray sent for Amy Bronson, the nurse. “I was just coming to see you,” she explained when she arrived. “I finally found a note hidden away among Albert’s effects. It contained five one hundred-dollar bills and the scribbled line, ‘I have tried to do more for you, but can not.’” “I didn’t see how he could have spent all the money,” mused Murray. “Now I can pay the bills,” she said. “No,” said Murray. “A memorandum of all that he owed is to be sent to me. Mrs. Vincent will pay everything.” “Mrs. Vincent!” cried the nurse. “Impossible! I couldn’t have so misjudged her.” “I don’t think you misjudged her,” returned Murray, “but,”—whimsically,—“I’m a wonder at argument. You ought to hear me argue. Mrs. Vincent decided to take my view of the matter with the insurance.” “But the five hundred dollars!” said Miss Bronson. “Keep it,” said Murray. “He intended it for you, and it is little enough. I’m only sorry that the ten-thousand-dollar policy is not for you, also, but it is one of the incidental hardships that arise from an ordinarily wise provision of the law.” The nurse’s lip quivered and the tears came to her eyes. “I was an entire stranger to you, Mr. Murray,” she said, “but you have been very good to me when I most needed a friend. I—I don’t know how I can—” “I have been amply repaid for all I have done,” said Murray. “How?” she asked in surprise. “I have had the royal satisfaction,” he answered, “of compelling an unscrupulous man and a selfish woman to do a fairly creditable thing; I have had the joy of showing my contempt for them in my very method of doing this.” She did not quite understand, her gratitude making her blind to all else at the moment. “And also,” added Murray to himself, when she had gone, “the great satisfaction of saving a devoted woman from the consequences of at least one of her acts of devotion. Forgery is a serious matter, regardless of the circumstances.” AN INCIDENTAL ERROR “It’s mighty awkward,” said Owen Ross, the insurance solicitor. “It is,” admitted Dave Murray. “I’ve been after him for over six months,” persisted Ross, “and now, after urging him persistently to take out a policy, I have got to tell him that we won’t give him one. That would be hard enough if he had sought us out, and it’s ten times as hard when we have sought him. Why, it looks as if we were playing a heartless practical joke on him.”