"Promise?"

"Honest," said Amaryllis.

Dick closed the door behind him, and walked up the passage with the limp
which was always more strongly marked in moments of preoccupation.

The balls were clicking in the billiard-room upstairs, and he hesitated
with a foot on the lowest step. But the bond of the protection which had
been accepted even while confidence had been withheld, seemed to tie him
to the post she had assigned him.

He lit a cigar, sank into the very chair he had left, and let his mind
revert to his discontented mood of the afternoon, laughing softly as he
admitted that it had needed only the trace of trouble on that charming
face to convince him that he was indeed "all in."

Something in the girl's face as she looked up at him had planted a seed
of hope.

A clock somewhere struck softly and many times. The cigar had been a
dead stump between his teeth for how long Dick did not know.

Randal's voice broke his reverie.

"I'm sick of knocking the balls about," he said. "Come and give me a
game, you slacker."

"Eleven!" exclaimed Dick. "Of course I'll play. Let's go and fetch Miss
Caldegard and I'll play the two of you."

"All right," said Randal. "Where is she?"

"In your study," replied Dick, leading the way. It was an hour since he
had left her and he was anxious to rouse the girl from her depression.

He opened the door, entered quickly, and stopped.

"Good God, she's gone!" he exclaimed.

"What d'you mean?" asked Randal.

"I left her here about an hour ago," said Dick. "She's not come out this
way. There's something wrong."

"My dear boy, don't excite yourself," said his brother. "Here's the
french-window. I expect she's out there."

"With bare shoulders and thin dress? It's been raining like hell since
ten o'clock. I tell you there's something wrong," said Dick, taking one
stride to the table, and lifting the lamp above his head. He glanced
swiftly round the room.

"Look at your safe," he said.

Randal, impressed by his brother's tone, went quickly to the alcove,
between whose looped curtains showed the green door of a safe embedded
in the wall. Before he touched it,

"My God! There's a key!" he said.

"Where's yours?" snapped Dick.

"Here," said Randal, pulling a bunch from his pocket.

"Look inside."

Randal turned the key, swung back the heavy door, groped for a minute,
and swung round with a face like death.

"What's gone?" cried Dick.

"Caldegard's drug-bottle