"Go to her! me? Do you hear that Jim? Isn't he the cute little fixer? Why, of course, she knew it; there was nothing doing on the divide. It's all straight enough, only we couldn't quite prove it by law; anyhow that is what they told me--so we got at it from another direction." She seemed so convinced, so earnest in her statement that West in perplexity turned to glance at Hobart. "Do you make this claim also?" he asked. "What claim?" "That this girl is a twin sister to Natalie Coolidge? Why, it is preposterous." "Is it? Damned if I think so. Now look here, West; I don't know just what the Coolidge girl has been told; maybe she never even heard she had a twin sister. If they ever told her that she had, then they must have told her also that the sister died in infancy. Anyhow, that's how it stands on the records. There were just two people who knew different--do you get me? One of them is dead, but one of them is still alive." "Which one is dead?" "Percival Coolidge; he knew too much and got gay; he planned to cop the whole boodle. The fact is he started the whole scheme, soon as he learned who Del was, and planned it all out. He was up against it hard just then for money; he'd lost all his own, and couldn't get hold of Natalie's because the old family lawyer watched things so close." "But if this girl was really entitled to a part of it, why not claim it by law?" "We talked about that, but the chance didn't look good. Everything showed the second child died; hospital records, doctor's certificate; there wasn't a link in the chain we could break. Percival wouldn't go on the stand, and there wasn't much he could swear to if he did." "But who was the other witness--the living one?" "The nurse; she made the exchange of the dead baby for the living one. It was easily done as the child was really sick." "But for what object--revenge?" "She was poor, and yielded to temptation. Percival Coolidge paid her to make the exchange. I have never been able to learn what his original purpose was, but she thinks he believed the stolen child was a boy, and that later, through him, the Coolidge money might be controlled. However the woman lost her nerve, and disappeared with the infant. She brought it up as her own in the west, where she married again. I am her second husband, and that is how I learned the truth." "The woman on the yacht?" "Yes, you saw her. The child was brought up in our life; I figured on this coup for years, and finally when all was ready, we came back east again. I had a plan, but I wasn't quite sure it would work until I could see the two girls together. After that it was like taking candy from a kid. Hell, you are the only one who has even piped off the game."