at once.  So losing no time, and filled with renewed hope he wrote to the Colossus a strong, manly letter which would have melted an iceberg, urging Mr. Ryder to come forward now at this critical time and clear him of this abominable charge, or in any case to kindly return the two letters he must have in his possession, as they would go far to help him at the trial.  Three days passed and no reply from Ryder.  On the fourth came a polite but frigid note from Mr. Ryder’s private secretary.  Mr. Ryder had received Judge Rossmore’s letter and in reply begged to state that he had a vague recollection of some conversation with the judge in regard to investments, but he did not think he had advised the purchase of any particular stock, as that was something he never did on principle, even with his most intimate friends.  He had no wish to be held accountable in case of loss, etc.  As to the letter which Judge Rossmore mentioned as having written to Mr. Ryder in regard to having received more stock than he had bought, of that Mr. Ryder had no recollection whatsoever.  Judge Rossmore was probably mistaken as to the identity of his correspondent.  He regretted he could not be of more service to Judge Rossmore, and remained his very obedient servant.

It was very evident that no help was to be looked for in that quarter.  There was even decided hostility in Ryder’s reply.  Could it be true that the financier was really behind these attacks upon his character, was it possible that one man merely to make more money would deliberately ruin his fellow man whose hand he had grasped in friendship?  He had been unwilling to believe it when his friend ex-judge Stott had pointed to Ryder as the author of all his misfortunes, but this unsympathetic letter with its falsehoods, its lies plainly written all over its face, was proof enough.  Yes, there was now no doubt possible.  John Burkett Ryder was his enemy and what an enemy!  Many a man had committed suicide when he had incurred the enmity of the Colossus.  Judge Rossmore, completely discouraged, bowed his head to the inevitable.

His wife, a nervous, sickly woman, was helpless to comfort or aid him.  She had taken their misfortune as a visitation of an inscrutable Deity.  She knew, of course, that her husband was wholly innocent of the accusations brought against him and if his character could be cleared and himself rehabilitated before the world, she would be the first to rejoice.  But if it pleased the Almighty in His wisdom to sorely try her husband and herself and inflict this punishment upon them it was not for the finite mind to criticise the ways of Providence.  There was probably some good reason for the apparent cruelty and injustice of it which their earthly understanding failed to grasp.  Mrs. Rossmore found much comfort in this philosophy, which gave a satisfactory ending to both ends of the problem, and she was upheld in her view by the rector of the church which she had attended