“I suppose so. Not his conscience,—I can see how he looked on his deed as right,—but he was bothered by circumstances,—and it was a difficult situation that he had created. The more I realize it, the sorrier I feel for my poor brother. To make his will was a perplexity! His lawyer has told me that when he left the pearls away from Betty, he said, ‘I _must_ do it! I _have_ to do it!’ in a voice that was fairly agonized. The lawyer couldn’t understand what he meant, but assumed it was some cloud on Betty’s birth. I daresay Fred was not bothered about his money, for he knew if he died first, Minna would provide for Betty. But the pearls he had to arrange for. Oh, well, Mr Wise, now then, viewed in the light of these revelations, where do we stand? Who killed my brother? Who killed the maid, Martha? Who kidnapped Betty and Mr North?” “Those are not easy questions, Doctor Varian,” Wise responded, with a grave face, “but of this I am confident,—one name will answer them all.” “You know the name?” “I am not quite sure enough yet to say that I do,—but I have a strong suspicion. I think it is the man who wrote the blackmailing letters to Mr Varian.” “The man we call Stephen? It well may be. They referred to a robbed woman. Now, my brother never robbed anybody in the commonly accepted sense of that term, but it may mean the mother of Betty. Could the doctor in the Greenvale Hospital, that attended the two women that night, be trying to make money out of the matter?” “They tell me he died some years ago.” “But these letters are not all recent. And, too, he might have divulged the secret before he died, and whoever he told used it as a threat against my brother.” “It’s hardly a blackmailing proposition.” “Oh, yes, it is. Say the doctor,—or the doctor’s confidant threatened Fred with exposure of the secret of Betty’s birth, I know my brother well enough to be certain that he would pay large sums before he would bring on Minna and Betty the shock and publicity, even though there was no actual disgrace.” “Well, then, granting a blackmailer, he’s the one to look for, but on the other hand, why should he kill Mr Varian, when he was his hope of financial plunder? Why should he kidnap Betty? And, above all, why should he kill Martha and abduct Lawrence North?” “The only one of those very pertinent questions that I can answer is the one about Betty. Whoever kidnapped her, did it for ransom. That is evidenced by the letters to Minna.” “If they are genuine.” “Oh, they are,—I’m sure. She had another while you were away.” “She did! To what purport?” “Further and more desperate insistence of the ransom,—and quickly.” “The regular procedure! If it is a fake they would do the same thing.” “Yes,—and they would also, if it is a real issue.” Wise went at once to find Minna and see the new letter. It was indeed imperative, saying, in part: