since Jack left!" "Well, what am I to do? You must have some part laid out for me?" "I have. A desperate situation demands a desperate remedy. I've lost all conscience. That's why I agreed to protect you if you'd protect me." "Go ahead." "Culver is your friend." "We're closer than a chord in G." "Then you must wire him--" "I have--" "--not to come." "What!" J. Wallingford Speed started as if a wasp had stung him. "You must wire him at once not to come. I don't care what excuse you give, but stop him. _Stop_ him!" Speed reached for a pillar; he felt that the porch was spinning slowly beneath his feet. "Oh, see here, now! I can't do that!" "You promised!" cried Mrs. Keap, fiercely. "I have tried to think of something to tell him, but I'm too frightened." "Yes, but--but I--want him here--for this foot-race." Wally swallowed bravely. "Foot-race!" stormed the widow, indignantly. "Would you allow an insignificant thing like a foot-race to wreck a human life? Two human lives? _Three?_" "Can't you--wire him?" Mrs. Keap stamped her foot. "If he dreamed I was here he would hire a special train. No! It must come from you. You are his best friend." "What can I say?" demanded the bewildered Speed, unhappily. "I don't care what you say, I don't care what you do--only do _something_, and do it quickly before he has time to leave Chicago." Then sensing the hesitation in her companion's face: "Or perhaps you prefer to have Helen know the deceit you have