i I began to feel extremely nervous.

In reply to my inquiry at the bureau of the smart Hotel Ombrone I was
told that I could be given a bed. Monsieur Duperre? Ah, monsieur had
just gone out, but would be back soon, most likely.

I had been given the key of my room, and was about to enter the lift,
when I noticed seated on a settee in the vestibule a well-dressed
woman whose face seemed familiar. And then in a flash I recognized the
lady who had been at Overstow Hall on the day I had arrived there!

She did not recognize me, or I concluded she did not, and naturally it
was no business of mine to make any sign of recognition.

I had been in my room, I suppose, about two hours when the telephone
bell rang.

"That Mr. Hargreave? The bureau speaking. Monsieur Duperre has come in
and is coming up to you now."

A minute later somebody knocked, and I called "Come in!" Then, to my
amazement, who should enter but my old company commander in France in
the early days of the war--Captain Vincent Deinhard, who later in the
war had been court-martialed for misappropriating canteen funds and
been subsequently cashiered! Altogether his Army record had been an
exceedingly bad one.

Instantly I remembered the voice. It was Deinhard I had heard in
conversation with Rayne at Overstow Hall!

He stood stock-still, staring at me.

"Why, Hargreave!" he exclaimed at last. "What in the world are you
doing here?"

"I am Mr. Rayne's chauffeur and general servant now, captain," I
replied. "Mr. Rayne told me to inquire on my arrival here for Monsieur
Duperre and hand him that suit-case," and I pointed to it.

He glanced quickly at the door, to make sure that it was shut, then,
looking at me oddly, he said in a low voice:

"I am Duperre, Hargreave. You must forget that my name was ever
anything else--I got myself into trouble in the Army, you
remember--and you must forget that too--and that we have ever met
before. So you are his new chauffeur, eh?" he went on, now talking
naturally. "It never occurred to me that 'Hargreave,' the new
chauffeur, would turn out to be the Hargreave who served under me
for two years!" and he laughed dryly.

Then, without a word, he went over to the suit-case and picked it up.

"Come along to my room," he said.

CHAPTER II

ROOM NUMBER 88

I accompanied him along the corridor to a private sitting-room at the
end, numbered 88, and adjoining which was a bedroom. There he placed
the suit-case u