CHAPTER XXIX.

Before Kingsley had an opportunity to reply, Miss Chandler had sprung by him and had caught Leonie's hand in an iron grasp.

"You must be mad!" she whispered hoarsely. "Think what you are doing! You lose every possible hope! There is no doubt but what we can escape if you will only help me. For God's sake keep your wits about you and do the thing you contemplate only when you are overpowered and forced to yield."

But Leonie had no idea of considering any such advice.

She perfectly realized there was not the shadow of a hope for them, and she wanted to preserve that marriage certificate.

She understood that it was but the copy of a record, and that she could prove her words without it; but it was the greatest saving of valuable time to keep what she had.

Besides, she had not looked at the name of the clergyman nor the witnesses, and they might be very hard to find.

Kingsley made no move whatever to intercept Miss Chandler.

He knew his power, and he allowed her, without interference, to talk to her companion as much as she chose, though every word that she uttered could be distinctly heard by him.

With a slow smile, though she was far from feeling in any degree mirthful, Leonie turned in his direction.

"Are you prepared to answer my question?" she asked calmly.

"I am," he replied. "You shall have ample time to say anything that you wish. Will you proceed at once?"

"By doing that you will lose everything," gasped Miss Chandler.

The smile on Leonie's face only deepened.

"You must remember that there is honor among thieves, Mr. Luis Kingsley," she began, "and the promise that you shall make me before you hear my secret must be kept to the letter. Do you agree?"

"I agree to abide by whatever promise I make. You may be sure of that. But the question is, whether I shall make the promise or not."

"I think you will. It can make no possible difference to you who I am, nor how I came by my information, but I have come into possession of a secret of yours which I am willing to sell for my liberty. I will tell you in the first place that the reason why I do not wish you to search me is that I am not the boy that you suppose, but a woman."

"This is growing interesting. Go on!"

"Well, sir, several years ago you had an uncle of great wealth."

"Leonie, for God's sake----"

Miss Chandler had interrupted, but Leonie talked on as though unaware of it.

"He was fond of a cousin of yours, but not of you. The cousin's name was Lynde Pyne. He had been brought up to look upon himself as your uncle's heir, a fact of which you were unable to see the justice. You were determined that such should not be the case. You, therefore, went systematically to work to alienate the affection of your uncle from his favorite nephew, pouring into his ears a tale of the treachery of Lynde Pyne that finally had the desired effect--that of causing your uncle to make a new will, leaving to you the bulk of his fortune."

"It seems to me that for a young woman whom I never saw before in my life, you are wonderfully well acquainted with my affairs."

"Poor girls need money as well as other people, and some of us have learned from men that the easiest way to obtain it, is often to discover the private affairs of men of millions like yourself, and trade upon the knowledge that we have gained."

"And how do you propose to handle this?"

"That is just what I am going to tell you."

She turned for a moment and looked at her sister. She was standing with her back leaning against the door, her face deadly white, her eyes glaring like those of an animal.

It was a desperate case with her, but there seemed absolutely nothing that she could do to avert the terrible danger that threatened her.

A weakness came over Leonie, the weakness that is engendered by human sympathy for a person in distress, but then a consideration of all that Miss Chandler had done against her wiped it out, and she turned her eyes in the direction of Kingsley with a little shudder of horror.

She resolutely forced herself not to glance again toward the shrinking woman.

"Go on, please," exclaimed Kingsley, a trifle nervously.

"You asked me, I think, how I proposed to handle this," returned Leonie. "Well, I have not quite reached that point yet. You know sometimes a trade falls through, and the larger the transaction the greater the danger attending it. Now, Mr. Kingsley, fortunately for your cousin, but most unfortunately for you, the stories told by you about Lynde Pyne to your uncle were discovered by him to be false while there was yet time remaining to him to make a new will. That will was made!"

"You are sure?"

"I have read it myself. You are cut out without a dollar, while the entire fortune is given to Mr. Pyne without reservation. What I propose is to deliver that will over to you, if you will release me from this place without trying to in any way molest me, or attempting to search me."

"You have the will?"

"I decline to answer that question, but I know where it is, and I will put you in possession of it when I have your assurance that you will do as I have demanded. So far as the other papers are concerned, they relate to the birth of a person, which cannot concern you, but in which I am interested as I was in the securing of that will. You understand me, I think, without further explanation."

She intended him to believe that she wanted to extract money from Miss Chandler, and he fell into the trap easily enough.

"I am willing," she continued, "to give up the papers that concern you if you will allow me to retain the others that are in my keeping without interference."

He smiled curiously.

"I accept the terms," he said, slowly. "I think Miss Chandler's presence here places her as much in my power as I care to have her, and I am not at all desirous of securing her money, therefore I agree to your terms."

Evelyn Chandler started forward, her ashen face more pallid than ever.

"You will eternally regret it if you do!" she gasped, hoarsely. "Do you know what the papers are that she wishes to conceal? Do you know who she is?"

"The key to this door!" cried Leonie, excitedly. "Throw it to me and the will is yours!"

"Listen to me, now!" gasped Miss Chandler. "I swear----"

"Here is the will!" interrupted Leonie. "The key--quick! There is a man in front of the house. If you hesitate I shall break the glass and pitch it through if you kill me!"

"Hear me!" panted Miss Chandler, catching Kingsley by the lapel of the coat and holding him frantically.

It but impeded his progress as he would have sprung toward Leonie; and seeing that she would not hesitate a moment to accomplish the purpose that she had assured him she would, he took the key from his pocket and flung it toward her.

Knowing that he would catch her if she made any attempt to escape with the will, she threw it down, unlocked the door, and sped away down the street like the wind.

The man of whom she had spoken as being across the street was a myth, but it had seemed to put an idea into her head that strangely enough had not occurred to her before.

Not even pausing to take breath, she ran along under the gray of the awakening morning, her mouth parched and dry, her tongue seeming to cleave to the roof of her mouth.

About three blocks away she found a policeman. Excitedly she caught his arm.

"Quick!" she gasped. "A moment's delay, and you will be too late! He may have escaped now! There are millions of money depending upon it. Quick!"

Something of her excitement seemed to communicate itself to the tired man. He set into a run with her, and with an evidence of surprise, stopped before the residence of Ben Mauprat, where the door was already open, and in which he could see the shadowy figures of a man and woman.

With the officer, Leonie sprung up the steps.

"Arrest that man!" she gasped, pointing dramatically toward Luis Kingsley. "He has a will in his possession that has been suppressed for years!"

"Arrest that woman, who is masquerading in the clothes of a man!" exclaimed Kingsley angrily, seeing that he had fallen into a trap.

Miss Chandler had sunk back helplessly. The officer glanced hastily from one to the other.

"I think I had better take you all in!" he said. "That seems to be the safe plan. Come, now, and no foolishness!"