"I do not hesitate to betray Chatham and Seymour; they did not scruple to ruin me. I have sent for Chatham, and I shall give him warning of my intended flight. If he sees fit, he can take such steps as he may choose to escape his own richly deserved punishment." * * * * * While Sturgis was reading Arbogast's letter, Dunlap, restlessly pacing the room, had observed him furtively. "Well?" he now inquired, stopping before the reporter; "what do you think of that?" "Poor woman!" exclaimed Sturgis feelingly; "it is terrible to think of the suffering brought upon her by her husband's guilt. I ought to be hardened to a situation like this; for it is the inevitable sequel of almost every crime that is ever committed. But I am moved every time by the pathetic expiation of the innocent for the guilty." "Yes, yes; I know," said Dunlap indifferently; "that is not what I meant. Did you note the amount which this scoundrel confesses he and his accomplices have stolen from the bank?" "Yes; it is a large sum." "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars! Why, man, if that is true, it is enough to cripple the bank----No, no; I don't mean that, of course; the bank is rich and could stand the loss of four times that amount. But a quarter of a million is a round sum, for all that. It does not seem possible that, in spite of all our care, they can have succeeded in making away with so much money. But they did. There can be no doubt about that; for in the papers which Arbogast inclosed for me in his letter to his wife he explains just how the thing was done. It is simple enough when you know the trick; but it took fiendish cunning to devise it. I never would have thought that rascally bookkeeper intelligent enough to concoct such a scheme." "If the scheme is a work of genius," said Sturgis, "you may rest assured that 'X'--who may very well be Henry Seymour--was the author of it." "Well, at any rate," observed Dunlap, "there is one thing that must be done at once; and that is to find both Chatham and Seymour. It is not possible that in two years these men have spent a quarter of a million dollars between them." "It is at all events possible that they may not have done so," replied Sturgis, "for my investigations show that both Arbogast and Chatham have been men of regular and exemplary habits in their private lives. They do not appear to have been living much, if at all, beyond their means. There does not seem to have been, in the case of either man, any room for a double existence, which might otherwise have explained the situation. Neither was a spendthrift nor a gambler, and neither was dissipated." "Then you have not the faintest idea of the present whereabouts of Chatham or of his mysterious accomplice?"