Besides, such work might give her better opportunities to secure the letters of which she was in search.

Gathering in one pile all the papers he had removed from the drawer, Mr.Ryder said: "I want you to put my biography together from this material.

But first," he added, taking up "The American Octopus," "I want to know where you got the details of this man's life." "Oh, for the most part--imagination, newspapers, magazines," replied Shirley carelessly.

"You know the American millionaire is a very overworked topic just now--and naturally I've read--" "Yes, I understand," he said, "but I refer to what you haven't read--what you couldn't have read.

For example, here." He turned to a page marked in the book and read aloud: "_As an evidence of his petty vanity, when a youth he had a beautiful Indian girl tattooed just above the forearm._" Ryder leaned eagerly forward as he asked her searchingly: "Now who told you that I had my arm tattooed when I was a boy ?" "Have you ?" laughed Shirley nervously.