n that Alban Melchard
was the man of whom Dick was going in pursuit, and Melchard's address,
found that evening in the letter received by Amaryllis; the second, the
few particulars concerning Melchard which he had gathered from the
landlord.

Superintendent Finucane, of the Criminal Investigation Department, had
immediately put himself in telephonic communication with the chief
constables of Millsborough and the County.

To the Government, this fresh proof of the Opiate Ring's influence and
power, and of its ramification even wider than had hitherto been
ascertained, was matter of the first importance.

Sir Charles Colombe had lost sight of the abducted girl in the theft of
the drug and its formula; while the Secretary of State, Sir Charles's
political chief, had suspicion so strong of liaison between certain
European leaders of Bolshevism and the Opiate Ring, that the Drug, the
Lost Lady, and even the Deleterious Drugs' Control Bill itself, had
become secondary factors in the greatest struggle of the day.

To net a Millsborough gallimaufry of decadents, criminals, and potential
rebels had become in a few hours his absorbing desire. And in this short
time he had almost frayed the smooth edges of the Permanent Under
Secretary's official decorum.

Randal Bellamy, with his affection for the girl, and his absorbing love
of his younger brother, had as much interest in the affair as any other
concerned. But he alone of them all had been really welcome at New
Scotland Yard; for, whatever he may have felt, he had shown there on his
first visit that Saturday--at about three o'clock in the afternoon--a
face as smiling and unwrinkled as his excellent white waistcoat. And
there was a refreshing serenity in the offer that he made to the
commissioner himself, of laying him ten pounds to one on his brother
Richard's success in any _shikar_ that he undertook.

This wager, made in the superintendent's room, had so much pleased that
official, to-day more oppressed by his superiors than by his work, that
he had actually invited Sir Randal to give him a call after dinner. The
others were merely expected.

"After dinner" is an elastic appointment, and Randal stretched it as
late as Caldegard's impatience would endure.

At a quarter past eleven the father could bear suspense no longer, and
forced his friend to go with him to the Castle where, between the
Embankment and Parliament Street, Argus and Briareus dwell together in
awful c