That's where they've got this fellow. He dare not appeal to the
people who know him best, because they'd give him away. He can't tell
the police who are his agents in Greece or Armenia, or they'll find out
just the kind of agency he was running."

He squatted back in his chair, pulling at his long moustache.

"Phillopolis, Crewe, Pinto, Selby, and then me," said he, speaking to
himself, "and he never mentioned Lollie Marsh. And Lollie has been the
decoy duck that has been in every hunt we've had. This wants looking
into, Pinto."

As he finished speaking there was a little buzz from the corner of the
room and Pinto looked up startled. The colonel looked up too and a slow
smile dawned on his face.

"A visitor," he said softly. "Not our old friend Jack o' Judgment,
surely!"

"What is it?" asked Pinto.

"A little alarm I've had fixed under one of the treads of the stairs,"
said the other. "I don't like to be taken unawares."

"Perhaps it is Crewe," suggested the other.

"Crewe's gone home an hour ago," said the colonel. "No, this is a
genuine visitor."

They waited for some time and then there was a knock at the outer door.

"Open it, Pinto," and as the other did not instantly move, "open it,
damn you! What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," growled the Portuguese and flung out of
the room.

Yet he hesitated again before he turned the handle of the outer door. He
flung it open and stepped back. He would have gone farther, but the wall
was at his back and he could only stand with open mouth staring at the
visitor. It was Maisie White.

She returned his gaze steadily.

"I want to see Colonel Boundary," she said.

"Certainly, certainly," said Pinto huskily.

He shut the door and ushered her into the colonel's presence. Boundary's
eyes narrowed as he saw the girl. He suspected a trap and looked past
her as though expecting to see an escort behind her.

"This is an unexpected honour, Miss White," he said suavely, and he
looked meaningly at the clock on the mantelpiece. "We do not usually
receive visitors so late, and especially charming lady visitors."

She was carrying a thick package, and this she laid on the table.

"I'm sorry it is so late," she said calmly, "but I have been all the
evening checking my father's accounts. This is yours."

She handed the package to the colonel.

"That parcel contains banknotes to the value of twenty-seven thousand
three hundred pounds," said the girl