ate with
you until I had confirmation of this report. But now that the
matter has been decided, it only remains for us to perfect our
arrangements for communicating these plans to our friends beyond
the North Sea. Therefore, I thought a friendly bridge evening at
the hospitable home of our dear colleague Bellward would be in
place."

He smiled affably and bent over his soup-plate.

"I shall be delighted to receive our friends," Desmond replied,
"a glass of sherry?"

"Thank you," said Mortimer.

"I shall have to provide a few refreshments," said Desmond. "May
I ask how many guests I may expect?"

Mortimer reckoned on his fingers.

"Let's see," he answered, "there's Max, that's one, and Madame
Malplaquet, that's two. No. 13 and Behrend makes four and myself,
five!"

"And Madame Nur-el-Din?" queried Desmond innocently, but inwardly
quaking at his rashness.

Mortimer genially shook a finger at him.

"Sly dog!" he chuckled, "you're one too many for me in that
quarter, I see! I know all about your tete-a-tete with our
charming young friend this afternoon!"

Desmond felt the blood rush to his face. He thought of
Nur-el-Din's words: "Mortimer sees and knows all." He picked up
his sherry glass and drained it to cover his confusion.

"... It was hardly gallant of you to bolt so suddenly and leave
the lady!" Mortimer added.

How much did this uncanny creature know?

Without waiting for him to reply, Mortimer went on.

"I suppose she told you a long story of my persecution, eh,
Bellward? You needn't shake your head. I taxed her with it and
she admitted as much."

"I had no idea that you were staying at the Dyke Inn!" said
Desmond at a venture.

"My friend," replied Mortimer, lowering his voice, "your fair
charmer is showing a decided inclination to make a nuisance of
herself. I have had to keep an eye on her. It's been a very
serious inconvenience to my plans, I can assure you. But you
haven't answered my question. What sent you away in such a hurry
this afternoon? and in so romantic a fashion? By the window, was
it not?"

Through sheer apprehension, Desmond was now keyed up to a kind of
desperate audacity. The truth is sometimes a very effective
weapon in the game of bluff, and Desmond determined to employ it.

"I saw someone I didn't want to meet," he replied.

"Ah!" said Mortimer, "who was that, I wonder? The Dyke Inn could
hardly be described as a frequented resort, I imagine!"

The entry of old M