e knew it had been nonchalant. Surely she had
made it so!

"Jimmy!" he called again. "What's up. What's the matter?"

There was no immediate reply, but in the deep silence Dion heard
hurrying steps, and then:

"Mr. Leith!"

"Hallo!"

"Mr. Leith--it is you, is it?"

"Yes. What on earth's the matter?"

"Stop a sec! I----"

The feet were pounding upward. Almost directly, in pyjamas and the
slippers, which somehow still remained with him, Jimmy stood by Dion in
the dark, breathing hard.

"Jimmy, what's the matter? What has happened?"

"I say, why are you here?"

"I couldn't sleep. The night was so hot. I had nothing to read in my
rooms. Besides they're stuck down right against the quay. You know your
mother's kind enough to let me have a key of the garden gate. I thought
I might get more air on the top terrace. I was reading in the pavilion
when I thought I heard a call."

"Then the mater isn't there?"

"Your mother?"

"Yes!"

"Of course not. Come on up!"

Dion took the boy by the arm with decision, and slowly led him upwards.

"What's this about your mother? Do you mean she isn't asleep?"

"Asleep? She isn't in her bedroom! She hasn't been there!"

"Hasn't been there?"

"Hasn't been to bed at all! I've been to her sitting-room--you know,
upstairs--she isn't there. I've been in all the rooms. She isn't
anywhere. She must be somewhere about here."

They had arrived in front of the pavilion backed by trees. Looking in,
Dion saw a lighted lamp. The slide of jeweled glass had been removed
from it. A white ray fell on an open book laid on a table.

"I was reading here"--he looked--"a thing called 'The Kasidah.' Sit
down!" He pulled the boy down. "Now what is all this? Your mother must
be in the house."

"But I tell you she isn't!"

Dion had sat down between Jimmy and the opening on to the terrace. It
occurred to him that he ought to have induced the boy to sit with his
back to the terrace and his face turned towards the room. It was too
late to do that now.

"I tell you she isn't!" Jimmy repeated, with a sort of almost fierce
defiance.

He was staring hard at Dion. His hair was almost wildly disordered, and
his face looked pale and angry in the ray of the lamp. Dion felt that
there was suspicion in his eyes. Surely those eyes were demanding of him
the woman who was hiding among the trees.

"Where have you looked?" he said.

"I tell you I've looked everywhere," said Jimmy, doggedly.

"Did