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On up went Motors, recovering the forty points, gradually, and even going beyond in the reaction. Worthington and Sheppard had been squeezed out. Not for a moment did he let up.

As the clock on Trinity church struck three, the closing hour, Brainard wheeled suddenly in his chair.

“Miss Dunlap,” he said quietly. “I wish that you would tell Worthington and Sheppard that I should like to see them in the board room at four.”

Constance looked at her watch. There was time also to execute a little scheme of her own.

Four o’clock came. Brainard lounged casually across to the board room. Instantly Constance had the receiver of the microphone at her ear, straining to catch every word, and to make notes of the stormy scene, if necessary.

Her door opened. It was Sybil Brainard.

The two women looked at each other coldly.

Constance was the first to speak.

“Mrs. Brainard,” she began, “I asked you to come down here–not Mr. Worthington. More than that, I asked the office boy to direct you here instead of to his office. Do you see that machine?”

Sybil looked at it without a sign of recognition.

“It is a microphone detective. It was the installing of that machine in the board room which you interrupted the other night.”

“Was it necessary that Mr. Brainard should put his arm around you for that?” inquired Mrs. Brainard with biting sarcasm.

“I had just jumped down from the table and had almost lost my balance–that was all,” pursued Constance imperturbably.

“Another of these microphone eavesdroppers told me of a conversation last night in your own apartment, Mrs. Brainard.”

Her face blanched. “You–have one–there?”

“Yes. Mr. Brainard heard the first conversation, when Drummond and Mr. Worthington were there. After they left he had to attend a conference himself. I alone heard what passed when Mr. Worthington returned.”

“You are at liberty to–“

“Mrs. Brainard. You do not understand. I have no reason to want to make you–“

An office boy tapped on the door and entered. “Mr. Brainard wants you, Miss Dunlap.”

“I cannot explain now,” resumed Constance. “Won’t you sit here at my desk and listen over the microphone to what happens!”

She was gone before Mrs. Brainard could reply. What did it all mean? Sybil put the black disc receiver to her ear as she had seen Constance do. Her hand trembled. “Why did she tell me that?” she murmured.

“You can’t prove it,” shouted a voice through the black disc at her ear. She was startled. It was the voice of Worthington.

“Miss Dunlap–have you that notebook?” came the deep tones of her husband.

Constance read from her first notes that part relating to the conspiracy to control Motors, carefully omitting the part about the Leblanc letters.

“It’s a lie–a lie.”

“No, it is not a lie. It is all good legal evidence, the record taken over the new microphone detective. Look up there over the chandelier, Worthington. The other end is In the top drawer of Miss Dunlap’s desk.”

“I’ll fight that to a finish, Brainard. You are clever but there are other things besides Motors that you have to answer for.”

“No. Those letters–that is what you mean–are in my possession now. You didn’t know that? All the eavesdropping, if you choose to call it that, was not done here, either, by a long shot, Worthington. I had one of these machines in my wife’s reception room. I have all sorts of little scraps of conversation,” he boasted. “I also have an account of a visit there from two–er–scoundrels–“

“Mrs. Brainard to see you, sir,” announced a boy at the door.

Constance had risen. Her face was flushed and her breast rose and fell with excitement.

“Mr. Brainard,” she interrupted. “I must explain–confess. Mrs. Brainard has been sitting in my office listening to us over the microphone. I arranged it. I asked her to come down, using another name as a pretext. But I didn’t think she would interrupt so soon. Before you see her–let me read this. It was a conversation I got after you had left last night and so far I have had no chance to tell you of it. Some one,” she laid particular stress on the word, “came back after that first interview. Listen.”