"Certainly not," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Because one afternoon last week I saw him come out of Falcon's Nest. It
was the afternoon he went botanizing."

Mr. Thurwell shook his head.

"The detective mentioned the date of his visit and search," he said. "It
was a month ago."

She wrung her hands, and turned away in despair.

"It must have been through those dreadful people I went to," she sobbed.
"Oh, I was mad--mad!"

"I scarcely think that," Mr. Thurwell said thoughtfully. "They would not
have kept altogether in the background and let Scotland Yard take the
lead, if it had been so. What is it, Roberts?"

The servant had entered bearing an orange-colored envelope on a salver,
which he carried towards Helen.

"A telegram for Miss Thurwell, sir," he said.

She took it and tore it open. It was from the Strand, London, and the
color streamed into her cheeks as she read it aloud.

"We must see you at once in the interests of B. M. Can you call on
us to-morrow morning? Levy & Son."

"When are the assizes at York, father?" she asked quickly.

"In ten days."

"And you are going to London to-day, are you not, to see Dewes?"

"Yes."

"Then I will go with you," she said, crumpling up the telegram in her
hand.

CHAPTER XXXVI

MR. LEVY PROMISES TO DO HIS BEST

Once more Mr. Benjamin Levy trod the pavement of Piccadilly and the
Strand, and was welcomed back again amongst his set with acclamations
and many noisy greetings. One more unit was added to the vast army of
London youth who pass their time in the fascinating but ignominious
occupation of aping the "man about town" in a very small way. And
Benjamin Levy, strange to say, was happy, for the life suited him
exactly. He had brains and money enough to be regarded, in a certain
measure, as one of their leaders, and to be looked up to as a power
amongst them, and it was a weakness of his disposition that he preferred
this to being a nonentity of a higher type.

Certain of his particular cronies had organized a small supper at a
middle-class restaurant on the previous night in honor of his return,
and as a natural consequence Mr. Benjamin Levy walked down the Strand at
about half-past ten on the following morning, on his way to the office,
a little paler than usual, and with a suspicion of a "head." It would
have suited him very much better to have remained in bed for an hour or
two, and risen towards afternoon; but business was busin