If Coolidge was engaged in some criminal scheme the man was certainly shrewd enough to carefully cover his trail.

It was no sudden temptation to which he had yielded, but a deeply laid plan, formed, perhaps, as long ago as his brother's death, and now just coming to a head.

Even the books of the estate might have been so carefully manipulated as to leave no clue.

Besides West possessed no authority by which to examine the books, or even question the bankers in whose hands the funds were supposed to be.

The only immediate hope of striking a trail apparently lay in his discovery of the strange woman who was impersonating Natalie Coolidge, and learning her object in carrying on such a masquerade.