to-morrow morning, call here again and report the
matter, and I will give you every assistance."

Thanking him for his courtesy I left the station and walked quickly back
to the hotel, hoping to find Beckenham safely returned and at his
dinner. But when the landlady met me in the verandah, and asked if I had
any news of my friend, I realized that a disappointment was in store for
me. By this time the excitement and worry were getting too much for me.
What with Nikola, the spy, Beckenham, Phyllis, the unknown lover, and
old Mr. Wetherell, I had more than enough to keep my brain occupied. I
sat down on a chair on the verandah with a sigh and reviewed the whole
case. Nine o'clock struck by the time my reverie was finished. Just as I
did so a newspaper boy came down the street lustily crying his wares. To
divert my mind from its unpleasant thoughts, I called him up and bought
an _Evening Mercury_. Having done so I passed into my sitting-room to
read it. The first, second, and third pages held nothing of much
interest to me, but on the fourth was an item which was astonishing
enough to almost make my hair stand on end. It ran as follows:

IMPORTANT ENGAGEMENT IN HIGH LIFE.

We have it on the very best authority that an engagement will
shortly be announced between a certain illustrious young nobleman,
now a visitor in our city, and the beautiful daughter of one of
Sydney's most prominent politicians, who has lately returned from a
visit to England. The _Evening Mercury_ tenders the young couple
their sincerest congratulations.

_Could this be the solution of the whole mystery?_ Could it be that the
engagement of Baxter, the telegram, the idea of travel, the drugging,
the imprisonment in Port Said, the substitution of the false marquis,
were all means to this end? Was is possible that this man, who was
masquerading as a man of title, was to marry Phyllis (for there could be
no possible doubt as to the person to whom that paragraph referred)? The
very thought of such a thing was not to be endured.

There must be no delay now, I told myself, in revealing all I knew. The
villains must be unmasked this very night. Wetherell should know all as
soon as I could tell him. As I came to this conclusion I crushed my
paper into my pocket and set off, without a moment's delay, for Potts
Point. The night was dark, and now a thick drizzle was falling.

Though it really did not take me very long, it see