“Perhaps I can save you by putting it in another form. Your father-in-law gave you to understand, did he not, that Wilfrid Blair met and quarreled with—with a certain person, and was killed in the encounter which followed?”

“How shall I ever free myself from the consciousness of my own part in it?” she shuddered. “Don’t—don’t speak of it again. I can’t bear it.”

“You won’t have to, very long,” Kent assured her. “Let us get back to the jewels. You would be willing to make a considerable sacrifice to recover them?”

“Anything!”

“Perhaps you’ve heard something of this man?”

Drawing a newspaper page from his pocket, Kent indicated an advertisement outlined in blue pencil. It was elaborately “displayed,” as follows:

Your Fate is Written in the Heavens

Consult The

Star-Master

Past, Present and Future are Open Books to His Mystic Game—Be Guided Aright in

Business, Love & Health

Thousands to Whom he has pointed Out the Way of the Stars Bless Him for His Aid.

Consultation by Appointment

Preston Jax

Suite 77 Mystic Block, 10 Royal Street

Mrs. Blair glanced at the announcement.

“Some of my friends have been to him,” she said. “For a time he was rather a fad.”

“But you haven’t ever consulted him, yourself?”