e our
patent method of killing time."

Violet uttered an indolent laugh. "Yours is a very strenuous one," she
observed. "I believe you imagine yourself invincible in your own
particular line, don't you?"

"Not at present," said Max, with his twisted smile.

She laughed again, mockingly. "Irresistible then, shall we say?"

He had turned to go, but he paused at the question and looked back at
her, grimly ironical. Olga had a feeling that the green eyes
comprehended her also.

"No," he said, with extreme deliberation. "Not even that. But--since you
ask me--the odds are certainly very greatly in my favour."

And with that he turned on his heel, still smiling, and sauntered away.

As he went, Violet stooped towards Olga with a face gone suddenly white,
and grasped her arm.

"Remember, Allegro!" she said. "Not a word about Hunt-Goring--to anyone!
Not one single tiny suspicion of a hint!"

And Olga, looking into her eyes, read terror in her soul.

CHAPTER XVII

THE VERDICT

"It's a difficult position," said Nick.

"It's a damnable position," said Max. He stared across the white
table-cloth with eyes that brooded under down-drawn brows. "I don't
anticipate any sudden development if I can keep her off that cursed
opium. But--I'd give fifty pounds to have her people within reach."

"Do you know where they are?" said Nick.

Max shrugged his shoulders. "They are cruising about the Atlantic to
give Mrs. Bruce, who is neurotic, a rest-cure. Of course, when I
undertook to keep an eye on the girl, I never anticipated this. Her
brother was anxious about her, I thought somewhat unnecessarily. It was
that blackguard Hunt-Goring who precipitated matters. I've given him a
pretty straight warning, though Heaven alone knows what effect it will
have."

"What did you say to him?" questioned Nick.

"I said that I had just discovered that he had been giving her
cigarettes that contained opium. I warned him that it was criminally
unsafe, that her brain was peculiarly susceptible to drugs, and that he
would probably cause her death if he persisted; also, that if he did I
would see that he was held responsible. What more could I say?"

"That was fairly direct certainly," said Nick. "And he?"

"He asked me to dine," said Max.

Nick laughed. "And you didn't accept?"

"Would you have accepted?" Max turned on him almost savagely.

"I think I should," said Nick. "There's nothing like studying the enemy
from close quar