room, fighting again with his desire to
search for more traces of its late owner, and then grew hot with shame
at his curiosity. He left Mrs. Eliot rather abruptly and wandered out
of the house, but the unknown mistress of the place haunted him,
glided before him across the smooth lawns, he could almost hear the
rustle of her dress on the gravel, and then recollected with relief it
was only the memory of the old game he used to play at Aston House
with his dead mother, transferred by some mental suggestion to Stormly
Park. Presently he saw the bulky form of Peter Masters on the steps
and joined him reluctantly.

"I want to see you, Christopher," said Peter as he approached. "Come
into my room. I shan't be able to go to London this week to buy the
car, so you must stay until Monday and go up with me then," he
announced, and without waiting for assent or protest plunged into his
subject with calculated abruptness.

"This road business of yours, is there money in it?"

"I think so. It is not done yet."

"How long will it take you to perfect it?"

"How can I tell? It may mean weeks, it may mean months."

"What are you going to do when you've found it?"

"Get someone to take it up, I suppose."

Christopher was answering against his will, but the swift sharp
questions left him no time to fence.

"I'll take it up now. Fit you up a laboratory and experimenting ground
and give you two years to perfect it--and a partnership when it's
started."

Christopher looked up with incredulous amazement.

"But it's a purely scientific speculation at present. There are just
about half a dozen people on the track. We are all racing each
other."

"Well, you've got to win, and I'll back you. You shall have every
assistance you want--money shan't count. You can live here and have
the North Park for trials, as many men as you want and no
interruption."

"But it's impossible. It's not a certainty even."

"No speculation is a certainty. If you bring it off it will mean a
fortune, properly managed. I can do that for you far better than
Aymer. We should share profits, of course, and I should have to risk
money. It's a fancy thing, but it pleases me."

Christopher got up and went to the open window. The tussle between
them had come. It would need all his strength to keep himself free
from this man's toils. However generous in appearance, Christopher
knew they were toils for him, and must be avoided.

"Aymer's done well enough for