One man there was in whose heart bitterness and rancor could be aroused against the merchant's secretary.
Beset by financial difficulties, deserted by the girl to whom he was engaged, Lester Ward would be an easy prey to the acute mind and provoking methods of the experienced detective.

If jealousy can inspire hatred, then Ward must feel toward his successful rival all the ferocious hatred of a man resenting a great deprivation.

And that vengeful passion must not be permitted to expend itself in profitless inward torture.

It was a potent force for Britz's dexterous hands to manipulate, a destructive fury that should annihilate Beard--if Beard was the slayer of Herbert Whitmore..