if you'll excuse me, love," he said.
"Maybe, Mr.--Mr. de Silva will join me. I'd--I'd like to talk over the
question of that mill with him."

Pinto nodded.

"Then run along now," said Lady Sybil, "and when you've finished
talking, come back to me, Mr. de Silva. I want to know something about
your charitable organisations in Portugal."

Pinto followed the other at a distance, saw him enter a big room and
switch on the lights and followed, closing the door behind him.

Mr. Crotin's library was the most comfortable room in the house. It was
lighted by French windows which opened on to a small terrace. Long red
velvet curtains were drawn, and a little fire crackled on the hearth.

When the door closed Crotin turned upon his guest.

"Now, damn you," he said harshly, "what's thy proposition? Make it a
reasonable sum and I'll pay thee."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SOLDIER WHO FOLLOWED

In the train which had carried Pinto Silva to Huddersfield were one or
two remarkable passengers, and it was not a coincidence that they did
not meet. In a third-class carriage at the far end of the train was a
soldier who carried a kit-bag and who whiled away the journey by reading
a seemingly endless collection of magazines.

He got out at Huddersfield too, and Pinto might and probably did see him
as he passed through the barrier. The soldier left his kit-bag at the
cloak-room and eventually became one of the two dozen people who
patronised Lady Sybil's bazaar on that afternoon. He passed Pinto twice,
and once made a small purchase at the same stall where the Portuguese
was buying lavishly. If Pinto saw him, then he did not remember the
fact. One soldier looks very much like another, anyway.

Lady Sybil had reason to notice the representative of His Majesty's
forces, and herself informed him severely that smoking was not allowed,
and the man had put his cigarette under his heel with an apology and had
walked out of the building. When Lady Sybil and her guest had entered
her car and were driven away to Mill Hall, the soldier had been
loitering near the entrance, and a few minutes later he was following
the party in a taxi-cab which had been waiting at his order for the past
two hours.

The taxi did not turn in at the stone-pillared gates of the Hall, but
continued some distance beyond, when the soldier alighted and, turning
back, walked boldly through the main entrance and passed up the drive.
It was dusk by now, and nobody chall