The lawyer looked in amazement from one to the other. What he had heard was scarcely credible. He did not believe the evidence of his own ears.
"What do you mean?" he gasped.
"Just what I say," replied Tod calmly. "The fight is as good as won! Jimmy Marsh acknowledges that he and Cooley conspired to divide Paula Marsh's estate, and put her here to gain their ends."
Mr. Ricaby said nothing for a moment. The suddenness of this most unexpected revelation had almost paralyzed his faculties. Could it be possible that they had run the cunning fox to earth, that they had the big criminal lawyer in their power? Was the astute Bascom Cooley trapped at last? It seemed too good to believe. If it were true, then Paula was as good as free. All their worry and anxiety was at an end. There was nothing to prevent her walking out of the asylum at once. All that remained to be done was the punishment of the scoundrels who by audacious fraud and misrepresentation had put her there. Silently the lawyer promised himself that the penalty should be the limit.
"Is it possible?" he ejaculated.
"Yes," said Tod exultingly. "Jimmy has just left here. He has gone upstairs to see Cooley and call the whole thing off."
Mrs. Marsh, giving way to her emotions, sank down on a convenient seat and buried her face in her daintily perfumed handkerchief.
"Oh, I'm so ashamed!" she moaned.
Tod put his arm tenderly around her. He was fond of his mother in spite of all that had occurred to estrange him from home.
"No, dear," he said gently, "you haven't done anything to be ashamed of. It isn't your fault. Mr. Ricaby knows that. Don't you, Ricaby?"