Lerton was sitting at his desk with his back to the door. He made no move until he heard the key turned. Then he whirled around in his desk chair. "I--Great Scott, Farland, how you startled me!" he exclaimed. "I thought it was my secretary." "Pardon me for butting in this way, but I am in a deuce of a hurry and told the boy it was all right," Farland said. "You'll smash my office discipline doing things like this. But, sit down, man! What is it now? Has that cousin of mine been acting up again, or are you going to pester me with a lot of fool questions about things I don't know anything about?" Farland had seated himself in the chair at the end of the desk, within four feet of George Lerton. He had tossed his hat to a table and twisted the cigar into one corner of his mouth. Now he stared Lerton straight in the eyes. "You look like a madman!" Lerton said. "Why on earth are you looking at me like that? You look as if you were ill----" The expression in Farland's face made him stop, and he appeared to be a bit disconcerted. "Why did you kill Rufus Shepley?" Jim Farland demanded suddenly in a voice that seemed to sting. Lerton's face went white for an instant. His jaw dropped and his eyes bulged. "Are--are you insane?" he gasped. "What on earth do you mean by this? I'll call a clerk and----" "The door is locked," Farland said, taking the automatic from his pocket. "You raise your voice, touch a button or make any move that I do not like, and I'll plug you and say afterward that I had placed you under arrest and had to shoot when you tried to escape. Answer my question, Lerton! You are at the end of your rope! Why did you kill Rufus Shepley and then try to hang the crime on your cousin, Sidney Prale?" "This is preposterous!" Lerton exclaimed. "Oh, I've got the goods on you, Lerton! I wouldn't be here talking like this if I didn't! You're going to the electric chair!" Lerton laughed rather nervously. "I always thought that you were a good detective, Jim, but I am beginning to have doubts now," he said. "What has put such an idea into your head?" "Facts gathered and welded together," Farland told him. "Don't try to carry out the bluff any longer, Lerton. And don't call me Jim. I never allow murderers to get familiar with me!" "This has gone far enough!" the broker exclaimed. "I'll have to ask you to leave my office, sir!" "I expect to do that little thing before long, and you are going with me," Farland said. There was a knock at the door. CHAPTER XXVI THE TRUTH COMES OUT Farland did not take his eyes off George Lerton. "If you have touched a button and called some fool clerk, I'll manhandle you!" he promised. "Kindly consider yourself a prisoner!" The knock was repeated, and Farland, still keeping his eyes on the man at the desk, backed to the door and turned the key. Then he took up a position where he could continue watching George Lerton and keep an eye on the door at the same time. "Come in!" he called.