tack of
pneumonia. Of course, it wasn't feasible for him to remain at the hotel,
especially as it was soon to close, so he had himself taken to the
nearest good hospital, which happened to be this one at Branchville.
Since he didn't have Geoffrey to wait on him, he wanted to be where he
could have the best attention and nursing, and as I could run his car,
which Geoffrey had always done, I could get easily there to see him.
Then, as you probably know, the hotel closed for the season, and the
manager very kindly found me a place to stay--with Aunt Sally Blake--in
the village. She has been very good and kind to me, but I expect I've
worried her a lot, not because I didn't care, but because I couldn't help
it and I couldn't tell her about--things!

"But, oh! I have been so troubled--so fairly _desperate_, at times! You
cannot even guess the awful burden I've had to bear--and all alone,--at
least till I came quite by accident to know your brother Ted. He has
helped me so much--but that is another part of the story!

"One night Grandfather's fever was very high and he was delirious. I
begged his nurse to let me sit with him awhile, and I heard him
constantly muttering about the bungalow, and Geoffrey hiding something
there, and it being safe at Curlew's Nest, and a lot more half-incoherent
remarks of that kind. Next morning he was a little better and in his
right mind again, so I asked him what he had meant by the things he had
talked about the night before. And then he said:

"'Eileen, I'll have to trust you with some of the secret, I believe,
since you've overheard what you have. Perhaps you may even be able to
help, and of course I can trust you to keep your own counsel--absolutely.
There's been a very mysterious mix-up here, and it involves far more than
you may imagine. In fact, it might even become an affair of international
moment--if something is not found, and quickly too. The gist of the
matter is this: while I was in China last year, I had some informal
correspondence with an official very high in government circles there,
concerning his attitude in regard to the province of Shantung. As he was
inclined to be very friendly toward me at the time he was just a little
expansive and indiscreet (I think those were Grandfather's words) in
regard to his Government's plans. Later, I think, he regretted this, and
made some half-joking overtures to have his letters returned. But I
pretended not to understand him and the m