htning sweep of her arm, she snatched the letter from his
hand and crumpled it in a ball.

"The writing!" said Mr. Mann again. "I've seen it before. It is--Jasper
Cole's!"

She looked at him steadily, though her face was white, and the hand
which grasped the crumpled paper was shaking.

"I think you are mistaken, Mr. Mann," she said quietly.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MAN WHO LOOKED LIKE FRANK

Saul Arthur Mann came back to England full of his news, and found Frank
at the little Jermyn Street hotel where he had installed himself, and
Frank listened without interruption to the story of the letter.

"Of course," the little fellow went on, "I went straight over to
Montreux. The note heading was not on the paper, but I had no
difficulty, by comparing the qualities of papers used at the various
hotels, in discovering that it was written from the Palace. The head
waiter knew this Rex Holland, who had been a frequent visitor, had
always tipped very liberally, and lived in something like style. He
could not describe his patron, except that he was a young man with a
very languid manner who had arrived the previous morning from Holland
and had immediately inquired for Frank Merrill."

"From Holland! Are you sure it was the morning? I have a particular
reason for asking," asked Frank quickly.

"No, it was not in the morning, now you mention it. It was in the
evening. He left again the following morning by the northern train."

"How did he find my address?" asked Frank.

"Obviously from the visitors' list. The waiter on duty in the writing
room remembered having seen him consulting the newspaper. Now, my boy,
you have to be perfectly candid with me. What do you know about Rex
Holland?"

Frank opened his case, took out a cigarette, and lit it before he
replied.

"I know what everybody knows about him," he said, with a hint of
bitterness in his voice, "and something which nobody knows but me."

"But, my dear fellow," said Saul Arthur Mann, laying his hand on the
other's shoulder, "surely you realize how important it is for you that
you should tell me all you know."

Frank shook his head.

"The time is not come," he said, and he would make no further statement.

But on another matter he was emphatic.

"By heaven, Mann, I am not going to stand by and see May ruin her life.
There's something sinister in this influence which Jasper is exercising
over her. You have seen it for yourself."

Saul Arthur nodded.

"I