reat pleasure for
me to do anything to relieve your anxiety."

She gave him her hands then of her own accord. The gratitude which
shone out of her swimming eyes seemed mingled with something which
was almost invitation. Laverick was suddenly swept off his feet.
Something had come into his life--something absurd, uncounted upon,
incomprehensible. The atmosphere of the room seemed electrified.
In a moment, he had done what only a second or two before he had
told himself would be the action of a cad. He had taken her,
unresisting, up into his arms, kissed her eyes and lips. Afterwards,
he was never able to remember those few moments clearly, only it
seemed to him that she had accepted his caress almost without
hesitation, with the effortless serenity of a child receiving a
natural consolation in a time of trouble. But Laverick was conscious
of other feelings as he leaned hard back in the corner of his taxicab
and was driven swiftly away.

CHAPTER XVI

THE WAITER AT THE "BLACK POST"

Laverick, notwithstanding that the hour was becoming late, found an
outfitter's shop in the Strand still open, and made such purchases
as he could on Morrison's behalf. Then, with the bag ready packed,
he returned to his rooms. Time had passed quickly during the last
three hours. It was nearly nine o'clock when he stepped out of the
lift and opened the door of his small suite of rooms with the
latchkey which hung from his chain. He began to change his clothes
mechanically, and he had nearly finished when the telephone bell
upon his table rang.

"Who's that?" he asked, taking up the receiver.

"Hall-porter, sir," was the answer. "Person here wishes to see you
particularly."

"A person!" Laverick repeated. "Man or woman?"

"Man, sir.

"Better send him up," Laverick ordered.

"He's a seedy-looking lot, sir," the porter explained "I told him
that I scarcely thought you'd see him."

"Never mind," Laverick answered. "I can soon get rid of the fellow
if he's cadging."

He went back to his room and finished fastening his tie. His own
affairs had sunk a little into the background lately, but the
announcement of this unusual visitor brought them back into his
mind with a rush. Notwithstanding his iron nerves, his fingers
shook as he drew on his dinner-jacket and walked out to the
passageway to answer the bell which rang a few seconds later. A
man stood outside, dressed in shabby black clothes, whose face
somehow