, in fact. Her swift, lithe movements possessed an
indescribable grace which, as I thought, and experienced a sudden
revulsion, were oddly uncanny--cat-like.

"Oh, Mr. Addison," she said, and drew even nearer, so that I could
feel her breath upon my cheek, "I fear that man as one fears a snake.
I am going to ask a favor of you. I see that there is another door to
this room, and I have a particular reason for wishing to avoid him. I
don't know where that doorway leads to, but I can doubtless find my
way out."

Her grasp upon my arm tightened.

"Dare I ask you," she added pleadingly, "to conceal from him if
necessary the fact that I have been here?"

"But Martin knows that you have been here," I protested, my mind in a
whirl at this sudden turn of affairs; "and the man sitting on the
bench outside must have seen you come in also."

"He did not," she replied rapidly, "and Martin does not know who I
am."

It was on the tip of my tongue to say, "Neither do I," but:

"Please," she pleaded; "it is not much to ask, but it means so much to
me."

Thereupon, without waiting for my answer, she turned and ran out
through the little doorway, which opened as a matter of fact into the
larder of the inn, from which there was an exit into a kitchen-garden.

I could hear Martin, the landlord, talking to the Eurasian doctor in
the passage outside the coffee-room, and before I had time to open the
door, there came a peremptory rap, the door was opened from the
outside and Dr. Damar Greefe entered.

In spite of the already great heat of the morning he wore a heavy
black overcoat, and his white hair showed in startling relief beneath
a wide-brimmed black felt hat. If I had been surprised at the tallness
of the woman who had so suddenly departed, the stature of the Eurasian
was curiously illustrated by the fact that he had to lower his head in
order to enter the little doorway.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, peering towards me where I stood in the badly
lighted room--"Mr. Addison, I believe?"

"At your service, Dr. Greefe," I replied.

"I understood that my niece was here?"

"Your niece!" I exclaimed, and my astonishment was quite unfeigned.

"Precisely."

That peremptory manner which I had previously resented in him evinced
itself now; and even had I lacked reasons other than personal for
foiling him I should certainly have returned a reply far from pacific.

"I was not aware," he continued, his voice high-pitched and harsh,
"tha