CHAPTER XIII
I GET INTO THE GAME
I crept back, closed the door behind me, and sat down facing it. My
hand shook as I lit a cigar. This was becoming serious, a ghastly
tragedy, in the playing of which I scarcely knew my part. The whole
affair had seemed so simple at first, almost humorous. The earliest
impression being that it was no more than a good joke. I was willing
enough to be an instrument for keeping certain unknown institutions out
of a legacy bequeathed them by a crazy man, and saving the property to
his rightful heirs. Why not? especially as the very administrators
themselves considered it the proper thing to do. Of course a technical
crime was involved--I must pretend to be another, even forge that
other's name, but for no criminal purpose. I was merely paid for the
risk assumed, and it was easy money. Perhaps the years of rough life I
had led had blunted my sensibilities to large extent--had left me less
capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, yet, not until Mrs.
Bernard had so unexpectedly voiced her doubt did I so much as suspicion
I was being made a catspaw of for a criminal end. I was not willing to
confess as much even now, but I saw the affair from a new viewpoint. I
was not so sure, so certain, that I understood the entire truth.
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