ad
to have met you. You surely will not refuse to be my guest for a few
hours."

He spoke with the utmost kindness, but also with inflexible
determination. The Frenchman still looked dubious, but quite obviously he
did not feel equal to a battle of wills with his resolute host. He
uttered a sigh and said no more.

He firmly declined the assistance of Mordaunt's man, however, and it was
Mordaunt himself who waited upon him, ignoring protest, till his
shivering _protege_ was safe in bed.

He seemed to resign himself to his fate then, being too exhausted to do
otherwise. A heavy drowsiness came upon him, and he very soon fell into a
doze.

Mordaunt sat in an adjoining room, opening and answering letters. His
demeanour was quite serene. Save that he paused now and then and leaned
back in his chair to listen, there was nothing about him to indicate that
anything unusual had taken place.

It was nearing midnight when his man came softly in with a cup of
beef-tea.

"All right, Holmes! I'll see to him. You can go to bed," he said then.

Holmes paused. "I've made up the bed in the spare-room, sir," he said.

"Oh, thanks! I shall not want it though. I will sleep on the sofa here."

"Very good, sir." Holmes still paused. He never expressed surprise at
anything his master saw fit to do; he only did his utmost to give his
proceedings as normal an aspect as possible. His acquaintance with
Mordaunt also dated from a South African battlefield; they knew each
other very well indeed.

"I was only thinking to myself," he said, in answer to Mordaunt's look,
"I could just as easy attend to the gentleman as you could, sir. I'm more
or less up in night duty, as you might say, and I'll guarantee as he
wants for nothing if you'll put him in my charge."

Holmes had been a hospital orderly in his time, and Mordaunt knew him to
be absolutely trustworthy in a responsible position. Nevertheless he
declined the offer.

"Very good of you, Holmes! But I would rather you went to bed. I
shouldn't be turning in yet in any case. I have work to do. I don't fancy
he will give any trouble. If he does, I will call you."

Holmes withdrew without further argument, and a few minutes later
Mordaunt, armed with the beef-tea, went to his guest's bedside.

He found him dozing, but he awoke at once, looking up with fever-bright
eyes to greet him.

"Ah! but you are too good--too good," he said. "And I have no hunger now.
I am only yet a little fatig