Lois said nothing. Her thoughts were busy trying to piece together the secret. With every moment distrust and suspicion were taking stronger hold upon her. "Lois," Beatrice went on, "that is the least of it all. The worst of all is that I can not pay my debts alone. I must go on ruining others. I must ruin you." Lois stiffened. She sat upright, as though preparing herself for a shock which she dimly anticipated. "Tell me what you mean," she said. "You remember it was I who tempted Rajah Nehal Singh into forming the Marut Company--" "That is not what you want to say. It was my husband's scheme." "Very well, it was our scheme, if you like. At any rate, the whole responsibility rests--or should rest--upon our shoulders. We have ruined him, and we have ruined hundreds of others. It is only fair that we should bear our share of the calamity." "And haven't we done so? You have lost all your money. That is punishment enough. And Archie, too--" She paused, a fierce note of defiance ringing out with her last words. Beatrice made no answer, and the two women looked at each other in significant silence. "You don't mean that--that it was--dishonest?" "I have no doubt Mr. Travers believed the mine was going to be a success. But it has failed, and the whole burden of the failure rests upon others, not upon him." "My husband is ruined, too. All his money is gone." "Yours remains." "Yes, but--" She stammered and broke off helplessly. Beatrice said nothing more. She saw the process of rapid thought on her companion's working face. She knew there was no need to explain further the careful precautions which Travers had made for his own safety. She knew that for his wife there was only one action possible. Lois rose to her feet. "You must forgive me," she said, a new and dangerous light in her dark eyes. "I am very slow and stupid about business matters, but I understand what you have been trying to say to me. You have pointed out a duty to me which otherwise, in my ignorance, I might have overlooked. My husband has incurred responsibilities which must be met--if not by him, at any rate by me. No third person shall take his share of the burden--certainly not the Rajah, who was no more than the tool which my husband used. I would be glad if you would let every one know that of course my money will go toward refunding those whom the failure of the mine has injured." Beatrice rose also. She put her two hands on Lois' shoulders. "You needn't do it," she said. "The money is yours. It is a thing that is done every day. The world won't say much if you stick to what is yours."