putting any ideas into my head," Gerald answered hotly.
"It's simply what I've seen and overheard. It's simply what I feel
around, the whole atmosphere of the place, the whole atmosphere you seem
to create around you with these brutes Sarson and Meekins; and those
white-faced, smooth-tongued Marconi men of yours, who can't talk decent
English; and the post-office man, who can't look you in the face; and
Miss Price, who looks as though she were one of the creatures, too, of
your torture chamber. That's all."

Mr. Fentolin waited until he had finished. Then he waved him away.

"Go and take a long walk, Gerald," he advised. "Fresh air is what you
need, fresh air and a little vigorous exercise. Run along now and send
Miss Price to me."

Gerald overtook Hamel upon the stairs.

"By this time," the latter remarked, "I suppose that our friend Mr.
Dunster is upon the sea."

Gerald nodded silently. They passed along the corridor. The door of
the room which Mr. Dunster had occupied was ajar. As though by common
consent, they both stopped and looked in. The windows were all wide
open, the bed freshly made. The nurse was busy collecting some medicine
bottles and fragments of lint. She looked at them in surprise.

"Mr. Dunster has left, sir," she told them.

"We saw him go," Gerald replied.

"Rather a quick recovery, wasn't it, nurse?" Hamel asked.

"It wasn't a recovery at all, sir," the woman declared sharply. "He'd no
right to have been taken away. It's my opinion Doctor Sarson ought to be
ashamed of himself to have permitted it."

"They couldn't exactly make a prison of the place, could they?" Hamel
pointed out. "The man, after all, was only a guest."

"That's as it may be, sir," the nurse replied. "All the same, those that
won't obey their doctors aren't fit to be allowed about alone. That's
the way I look at it."

Mrs. Fentolin was passing along the corridor as they issued from the
room. She started a little as she saw them.

"What have you two been doing in there?" she asked quickly.

"We were just passing," Hamel explained. "We stopped for a moment to
speak to the nurse."

"Mr. Dunster has gone," she said. "You saw him go, Gerald. You saw him,
too, didn't you, Mr. Hamel?"

"I certainly did," Hamel admitted.

Mrs. Fentolin pointed to the great north window near which they were
standing, through which the clear sunlight streamed a little pitilessly
upon her worn face and mass of dyed hair.

"You ought ne