t. It is murder, and Java is at the
bottom of it. Dollops will hand you this. Say nothing--just
wait till I get back.

This he slipped, unsigned in his haste, into an envelope, handed it to
Dollops, and then fairly jumped into his clothes. Ten minutes later he
was out of the house, and--the end of the riddle was in sight.

III

On the morrow Mrs. Bawdrey made known the rather surprising piece of
news that Mr. Rickaby had written her a note to say that he had received
a communication of such vital importance that he had been obliged to
leave the house that morning before anybody was up, and might not be
able to return to it for several days.

"No very great hardship in that, my dear," commented Mrs. Somerby-Miles,
"for a more stupid and uninteresting person I never encountered. Fancy!
he never even offered to assist the gentlemen to get poor Mr. Bawdrey
upstairs last night. How is the poor old dear this morning, darling?
Better?"

"Yes--much," said Mrs. Bawdrey in reply. "Doctor Phillipson came to the
house before four o'clock, and brought some wonderful new medicine that
has simply worked wonders. Of course, he will have to stop in bed and be
perfectly quiet for three or four days; but, although the attack was by
far the worst he has ever had, the doctor feels quite confident that he
will pull him safely through."

Now although, in the light of her apparent affection for her aged
husband, she ought, one would have thought, to be exceedingly happy
over this, it was distinctly noticeable that she was nervous and ill at
ease, that there was a hunted look in her eyes, and that, as the day
wore on, these things seemed to be accentuated. More than that, there
seemed added proof of the truth of young Bawdrey's assertion that she
and Captain Travers were in league with each other, for that day they
were constantly together, constantly getting off into out-of-the-way
places, and constantly talking in an undertone of something that seemed
to worry them.

Even when dinner was over, and the whole party adjourned to the
drawing-room for coffee, and the lady ought, in all conscience, to have
given herself wholly up to the entertainment of her guests, it was
observable that she devoted most of her time to whispered conferences
with Captain Travers. They kept going to the window and looking up at
the sky, as if worried and annoyed that the twilight should be so long
in fading and the night in coming on. But worse t