are
passionless bankers.
But Hardin gathers up the knotted threads and unravels all.
Accustomed to weigh evidence, to sift facts, his clear mind indicates
Natalie de Santos as the brain, Villa Rocca as the striking assassin
of this plot.
It is all aimed at him.
"Ah, yes!" the chafing lawyer muses, as he walks the legal
quarter-deck of his superb library. "Villa Rocca and Natalie are
lovers. The girl tried to blackmail them. She was trapped and put
out of the way.
"Marie Berard dead--one dangerous ally gone. Villa Rocca and
Natalie are the only two who know all. Her mind is his now.
"Ah, I have it!" with a devilish sneer. "I will separate these
two billing and cooing lovers. If I get Villa Rocca here, he will
never get back to France.
"When he is out of the way, Natalie can prove nothing.
"If she comes here I will treat her story as that of an insane
woman."
Hardin draws a glass with shaking hand.
"Yes; a private asylum."
As for the heiress, there are plans in his mind he dare not whisper.
Illegitimacy and other reasons may bar her rights. The heiress
knows nothing and she has not a paper.
Some outsider must fight this case.
In Hardin's dreams he sees his enemies at his feet.
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