"Let it be enough to say that the torture you inflicted and the sights he saw in your house drove him insane. Hungry, wretched, in despair over his misfortunes and the promise he had given his daughter, whom he loved better than life, in a moment of madness he took a case of your jewels." "He took that case of jewels?" Bivens cried with excitement. "Yes." The little financier broke into a peal of laughter, walked over to the chair where the doctor sat, thrust his hands into his pockets and continued to laugh. "So, that's what you meant by laughing and sneering in my face as you left that night, you d----d old hypocrite!" Stuart suddenly gripped Bivens and spun him around in his tracks. "That will do now! The doctor is my friend. He's an old broken man to-night and he's under my protection. He came here at my suggestion and against his protest. I won't stand for this." "I'll say what I please to a thief." "Not this one." Stuart faced the little dark man with a dangerous gleam in his eye. The two men glared at each other for a moment and Bivens threw up his hands in a gesture of disgust. "Well, what did you come for? To ask me to give him a pension for robbing me of a case of jewels? I've accused every drunken servant in the house of the act. Shall I send one of them to the penitentiary and give the real thief a medal for his skill?" "I only ask that you allow me to return the value of your jewels and drop the whole affair." Bivens's eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened viciously. "Can the District Attorney of the County of New York compound a felony?" "I resigned my office this morning." Bivens tried to seize Stuart's hand, forgetting for a moment the jewels in the bigger announcement which meant the acceptance of his offer. He spoke in low excited tones. "Congratulations!" Stuart waved aside the extended hand with a gesture of annoyance. "You'll drop this case, of course, at my request?" Bivens looked at the bowed figure crouching in forlorn indifference before him with a smile and replied quickly: "I will not." "I told you I'd make good the amount to-morrow morning." "What the devil do you suppose I want with your money? Five thousand dollars is no more to me than five cents to the average man." He paused, laughed and again stared at the bowed figure. "I've waited a long time, old man, but I've got you where I want you now." The doctor never lifted his head or moved a muscle. His eyes were fixed in a senseless stare. Only the body was present. The soul was gone. "I say I've got you now!" Bivens repeated angrily. "Did you hear me?" Stuart spoke in low tones: "My God, Cal, can't you see." "Five thousand!" Bivens cried exultantly--"It's too easy! The day I see him in a suit of stripes--I've never done such a thing--but I'm going to take a day off and get drunk." "You are not going to prosecute him?"--Stuart asked incredulously. "As soon as I can telephone for an officer." "You don't mean it?"