hand of Dopey Charlie gleamed a bit of shiny steel and

in his heart were fear and greed. The fear was engend-

ered by the belief that the youth might be an amateur

detective. Dopey Charlie had had one experience of

such and he knew that it was easily possible for them to

blunder upon evidence which the most experienced of

operatives might pass over unnoticed, and the loot bulg-

ing pockets furnished a sufficient greed motive in them-

selves.

Beside the boy kneeled the man with the knife. He

did not raise his hand and strike a sudden, haphazard

blow. Instead he placed the point carefully, though

lightly, above the victim's heart, and then, suddenly, bore

his weight upon the blade.

Abigail Prim always had been a thorn in the flesh of her

stepmother--a well-meaning, unimaginative, ambitious,

and rather common woman. Coming into the Prim home

as house-keeper shortly after the death of Abigail's

mother, the second Mrs. Prim had from the first looked

upon Abigail principally as an obstacle to be overcome.

She had tried to 'do right by her'; but she had never

given the child what a child most needs and most

craves--love and understanding. Not loving Abigail, the

house-keeper could, naturally, not give her love; and as

for understanding her one might as reasonably have ex-

pected an adding machine to understand higher mathe-

matics.

Jonas Prim loved his daughter. There was nothing,

within reason, that money could buy which he would

not have given her for the asking; but Jonas Prim's love,

as his life, was expressed in dollar signs, while the love

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