"I was in the living-room when Donaldson ran in. I hid there until they
were all gathered around Lucas and had quit running in, and then I
got away. I saw my mother in the grounds later. I told her where the
revolver was and that they'd better put it in the billiard room. I was
afraid they'd suspect Bev.
"I have read the above statement and it is correct. I was legally
adopted by Mrs. Alice Ford Hines, of Omaha, and use that signature. I
generally use the name of Frederick Gregory, which I took when I was on
the stage for a short time.
"(Signed) Clifton HINES."
Bassett folded up the papers and put them in the envelope. "I got
that," he said, "at the point of a gun, my friend. And our friend Hines
departed for the Mexican border on the evening train. I don't mind
saying that I saw him off. He held out for a get-away, and I guess it's
just as well."
He glanced at Dick, lying still and rigid on the bed.
"And now," he said. "I think a little drink won't do us any harm."
Dick refused to drink. He was endeavoring to comprehend the situation;
to realize that Gregory, who had faced him with such sneering hate a day
or so before, was his half-brother.
"Poor devil!" he said at last. "I wish to God I'd known. He was right,
you know. No wonder--"
Sometime later he roused from deep study and looked at Bassett.
"How did you get the connection?"
"I saw Melis, and learned that Hines was in it somehow. He was the
connecting link between Beverly Carlysle and the Thorwald woman. But I
couldn't connect him with Beverly herself, except by a chance. I wired
a man I knew in Omaha, and he turned up the second marriage, and a
daughter known on the stage as Beverly Carlysle."
Bassett was in high spirits. He moved about the room immensely pleased
with himself, slightly boastful.
"Some little stroke, Dick!" he said. "What price Mr. Judson Clark
to-night, eh? It will be worth a million dollars to see Wilkins' face
when he reads that thing."
"There's no mention of me as Livingstone in it, is there?"
"It wasn't necessary to go into that. I didn't know--Look here," he
exploded, "you're not going to be a damned fool, are you?"
"I'm not going to revive Judson Clark, Bassett. I don't owe him
anything. Let him die a decent death and stay dead."