hat may this valuable piece of information be
worth?"

The other made an abrupt movement; it was almost as if he curbed some
savage impulse to violence. He moved back a pace, and there in the
moonlight before Dacre's insolent gaze--he changed.

With a deep breath he straightened himself to the height of a tall man.
The bent contorted limbs became lithe and strong. The cringing humility
slipped from him like a garment. He stood upright and faced Ralph
Dacre--a man in the prime of life.

"That," he said, "is a matter of opinion. So far as I am concerned, it
has cost a damned uncomfortable journey. But--it will probably cost you
more than that."

"Great--Jupiter!" said Dacre.

He stood and stared and stared. The curt speech, the almost fiercely
contemptuous bearing, the absolute, unwavering assurance of this man
whom but a moment before he had so arrogantly trampled underfoot sent
through him such a shock of amazement as nearly deprived him of the
power to think. Perhaps for the first time in his life he was utterly
and completely at a loss. Only as he gazed at the man before him, there
came upon him, sudden as a blow, the memory of a certain hot day more
than a year before when he and Everard Monck had wrestled together in
the Club gymnasium for the benefit of a little crowd of subalterns who
had eagerly betted upon the result. It had been sinew _versus_ weight,
and after a tough struggle sinew had prevailed. He remembered the
unpleasant sensation of defeat even now though he had had the grit to
take it like a man and get up laughing. It was one of the very few
occasions he could remember upon which he had been worsted.

But now--to-night--he was face to face with something of an infinitely
more serious nature. This man with the stern, accusing eyes and wholly
merciless attitude--what had he come to say? An odd sensation stirred at
Dacre's heart like an unsteady hand knocking for admittance. There was
something wrong here--- something wrong.

"You--madman!" he said at length, and with the words pulled himself
together with a giant effort. "What in the name of wonder are you doing
here?" He had bitten his cigar through in his astonishment, and he
tossed it away as he spoke with a gesture of returning confidence. He
silenced the uneasy foreboding within and met the hard eyes that
confronted him without discomfiture. "What's your game?" he said. "You
have come to tell me something, I suppose. But why on earth couldn'