So he took another tack. He was not a successful merchant and real estate operator for nothing. He said: "I do not blame you, Helen, for _wishing_ that that old cloud over your father's name might be dissipated. I wish so, too. But, remember, long ago your--ahem!--your aunt and I, as well as Fenwick Grimes, endeavored to get to the bottom of the mystery. Detectives were hired. Everything possible was done. And to no avail." She watched him narrowly, but said nothing. "So, how can you be expected to do now what was impossible when the matter was fresh?" pursued her uncle, suavely. "If I could help you----" "You can," declared the girl, suddenly. "Will you tell me how?" he asked, in a rather vexed tone. "By telling me where to find Mr. Grimes," said Helen. "Why--er--that is easily done, although I have had no dealings with Mr. Grimes for many years. But if he is at home--he travels over the country a great deal--I can give you a letter to him and he will see you." "Thank you, sir." "You are determined to try to rake up all this trouble?" "I will see Mr. Grimes. And I will try to find Allen Chesterton." "Out of the question!" cried her uncle. "Chesterton is dead. He dropped out of sight long ago. A strange character at best, I believe. And if he was the thief----" "Well, sir?" "He certainly would not help you convict himself." "Not intentionally, sir," admitted Helen. "I never did see such an opinionated girl," cried Mr. Starkweather, in sudden wrath. "I'm sorry, sir, if I trouble you. If you don't want me here----" Now, her uncle had decided that it would not be safe to have the girl elsewhere in New York. At least, if she was under his roof, he could keep track of her activities. He began to be a little afraid of this very determined, unruffled young woman. "She's a little savage! No knowing what she might do, after all," he thought. Finally he said aloud: "Well, Helen, I will do what I can. I will communicate with Mr. Grimes and arrange for you to visit him--soon. I will tell you--ahem!--in the near future, all I can recollect of the affair. Will that satisfy you?" "I will take it very kindly of you, Uncle," said Helen non-committally. "And when you are satisfied of the impossibility of your doing yourself, or your father's name, any good in this direction, I shall expect you to close your visit in the East here and return to your friends in Montana." She nodded, looking at him with a strange expression on her shrewd face. "You mean to help me as a sort of a bribe," she observed, slowly. "To pay you I am to return home and never trouble you any more?" "Well--er--ahem!" "Is that it, Uncle Starkweather?" "You see, my dear," he began again, rather red in the face, but glad that he was getting out of a bad corner so easily, "you do not just fit in, here, with our family life. You see it yourself, perhaps?" "Perhaps I do, sir," replied the girl from Sunset Ranch.