"You didn't?" Betty's heart sank.
"I go it off five minutes before twelve. Haw, haw, haw!" He fairly doubled up in his enjoyment of this witticism.
Like a flash, Betty darted back to Hiram, thrilling with this good news. And at the same moment Grimes entered, holding a cablegram in his hand.
"Beg your pardon, sir," he said respectfully to Baxter, "I've just arrested your chauffeur, Anton Busch. He's a crook, Slippery Jake, sneak thief and confidence man, wanted by the police in half dozen cities. He's been working some deviltry here, sir. I've just found this cablegram on him. It's addressed to you."
"Thank you," said Hiram with a look of inexpressible sadness in his eyes. "It's come too late."
"I'm sorry, sir. I—I'll wait outside," and Grimes withdrew, his hard face softened by a look of deep pity for the shattered old warrior.
Baxter sat still, looking at the yellow envelope. "Too late!" he muttered. "Oh, if I'd only got this cablegram in time!"
"Guardy, I want to tell you something," Betty began, but Hiram paid no attention.
"Nothing matters now," he went on bitterly. "I mustn't say that. I'm happy about you two. Betty! Bob!" He joined their hands and held them strongly. "It's what I've always dreamed of, but—I wanted to leave ye well fixed and now——" The tears were coursing down his grizzled cheeks. "We're ruined—ruined."
"No, no! We're not ruined. You mustn't say that, Guardy." The girl dared not promise anything, for she did not know the result of her effort, but she pointed hopefully to the unopened cablegram. "Why don't you open this? Why don't you read it?"