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thronged about June to offer their congratulations. She turned from them wearily, seeking her mother; but
there was one who would not be denied--a tall, freckled youth who wormed his way to her side with
uncanny stealthiness. It was Sammy, the one-time office-boy of the corporation known as John Secor &
Co.
"Miss Lathrop," he whispered. "Miss Lathrop, I've been trying to find you for years. I'm a regular
detective now; but the best job I ever did I did for you and nobody never knew anything about it. Don't
you remember me?"
She shook hands with him, and he followed her from the court-room. There was another who followed
her, too. A sun-tanned young man whose haggard features bore clear witness to the mental suffering he
had endured.
Outside the building he touched her sleeve. She turned toward him.
"Do you loathe me," he whispered, "for what *he* did?"
"You know better than that," she answered; "but now you see why it was that I could not marry you.
Now you will thank me for not being weak and giving in--God knows how sorely I was tempted!"
"There is nothing now to prevent," he said eagerly.
She looked at him in surprise. "You still want me?" she cried. "You can't mean it--it would be horrible!"
"I shall always want you, June," he said doggedly, "and some day I shall have you."
But still she shook her head.
"It would be wicked, Ogden," she said with a little shudder. "If he had been any one else--any one else
in the world than your father!"
Secor looked at her in astonishment.
"My father!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean that you do not know--that John Secor was *not* my
father?"
The girl's astonishment and incredulity were writ plain upon her face.
"Not your father?" It was scarce a whisper.
"I was the foster son of John Secor's brother. When he died I went to live with the John Secors, and
after the death of their only son I entered Mr. Secor's office, taking the place of the son he had lost, later
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inheriting his business."
June continued to look in dull bewilderment at Secor. It could not be true! She cast about for another
obstacle. Certainly she had no right to such happiness as she saw being surely pressed upon her.
"There is still the charge against me of having aided the men who robbed your safe--that is even worse,
for it reproaches me with disloyalty and treachery toward one who had befriended me," she said faintly.
Sammy and June's mother had been standing a little apart as the two spoke together in whispers. June
had slightly raised her voice as she recalled the affair in the office of John Secor & Co. the night that
Ogden had received the blows that had resulted in all his financial troubles.
That part Sammy heard. Now he stepped forward.
"That's what I wanted to tell you about, Miss Lathrop," he said, excitedly. "It wasn't her at all" he went
on, turning toward Secor. "It was that smooth scoundrel of a Stickler. I was hiding under his filing cabinet
when he tried to make Miss Lathrop go out with him, and I heard her turn him down. Then I followed
him, for I was just studying to be a detective then and I had to practise every chance I got. He went
straight to Abe Farris's saloon, and there I saw him talking low and confidential-like to a couple of
tough-lookin' guys for about two hours. He handed one of 'em a slip of paper, explaining what was on it.
I couldn't see it, but from what happened after I knew it held the combination to your safe, for I seen the
robber that was shot when he was put on trial, and he was one of the guys that Stickler met in Farris's. I
was so scared I didn't dare tell nobody."
Ogden turned toward June with a faint smile. "You see," he said, "that one by one your defenses are
reduced--aren't you about ready to capitulate?"
"I guess there is no other way," she sighed; "but it seems that the world must be all awry when hope of
happiness appears so close within my grasp!"
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