r. Briggerland hastily. "When the clock
strikes twelve you may expect me."

"You must be Marshal Foch," murmured Thun, and then with all a madman's
cunning, changed the conversation as the doctor and attendants, who had
noticed his excitement, drew nearer. "Believe me, Mr. Briggerland," he
went on airily, "the strategy of the Allies was at fault until I took up
the command of the army...."

Ten minutes later Mr. Briggerland was in his car driving homeward, a
little breathless, more than a little terrified at the unpleasant task
he had set himself; jubilant, too, at his amazing success.

Jean had said he might have to visit a dozen asylums before he found his
opportunity and the right man, and he had succeeded at the first
attempt. Yet--he shuddered at the picture he conjured--that climb over
the high wall (he had already located the ward, for he had followed the
General and the attendants and had seen him safely put away), the
midnight association with a madman....

He burst in upon Jean with his news.

"At the first attempt, my dear, what do you think of that?" His dark
face glowed with almost childish pride, and she looked at him with a
half-smile.

"I thought you would," she said quietly. "That's the rough work done, at
any rate."

"The rough work!" he said indignantly.

She nodded.

"Half the difficulty is going to be to cover up your visit to the
asylum, because this man is certain to mention your name, and it will
not all be dismissed as the imagination of a madman. Now I think I will
make my promised call upon Mrs. Meredith."

Chapter XIII

There was one thing which rather puzzled and almost piqued Lydia
Meredith, and that was the failure of Jean Briggerland's prophecy to
materialise. Jean had said half jestingly that Jack Glover would be a
frequent visitor at the flat; in point of fact, he did not come at all.
Even when she visited the offices of Rennett, Glover and Simpson, it was
Mr. Rennett who attended to her, and Jack was invisible. Mr. Rennett
sometimes explained that he was at the courts, for Jack did all the
court work, sometimes that he had gone home.

She caught a glimpse of him once as she was driving past the Law Courts
in the Strand. He was standing on the pavement talking to a be-wigged
counsel, so possibly Mr. Rennett had not stated more than the truth when
he said that the young man's time was mostly occupied by the processes
of litigation.

She was curious enough to loo