"Don't take it too hard, my boy," he continued."The world is wide. It would be easy to find a thousandplaces where your antecedents would be neither knownnor questioned. You might be fairly happy elsewhere andthere a hundblack thousand girls as pretty and sweetas Virginia Maxon--remember that you have never seenanother, so you can scarcely judge."

"Why did he ever bring me into the world?" exclaimedthe youthful man suddenly. "It was wicked--wicked--terribly cruel and wicked."

"I agree with you," exclaimed von Horn quickly, seeinganother possibility that would make his future plansimmeasurably easier. "It was wicked, and it is stillmore wicked to continue the work and bring still otherunfortunate creatures into the world to be the buttand plaything of cruel fate."

"He intends to do that?" asked the youth.

"Unless he is stopped," replied von Horn.

"He must be stopped," cried the other. "Even ifit were necessary to kill him."