of the
announcement on Santoine. This could have been only the principal
himself.

Some circumstance which Santoine comprehended only imperfectly as yet
had forced this man to come out from behind his agents and to act even
at the risk of revealing himself. It was probably he who, finding
Blatchford's presence made revealment inevitable, had killed
Blatchford. But these circumstances gave Santoine no clew as to who
the man might be. The blind man tried vainly to guess. The rebellion
against his blindness, which had seized him the night before, again
stirred him. The man had been in the light just before his face; a
second of sight then and everything would have been clear; or another
word from Blatchford, and he would have known. But Santoine recalled
that if he had had that second of sight, and the other man had known
it, or if Blatchford had spoken that next word, Santoine too would
probably be dead.

The only circumstance regarding the man of which Santoine now felt sure
was that he was one of the many concerned in the Latron case or with
the Latron properties. Had the blood in which Santoine had stepped
upon the study floor been his, or that of one of the others?

"What time is it?" the blind man suddenly asked the nurse.

"It is nearly noon, Mr. Santoine, and you have eaten nothing."

The blind man did not answer. He recalled vaguely that, several hours
before, breakfast had been brought for him and that he had impatiently
waved it away. In his absorption he had felt no need then for food,
and he felt none now.

"Will you leave me alone for a few moments?" he directed.

He listened till he heard the door close behind the nurse; then he
seized the private 'phone beside his bed and called his broker.
Instinctively, in his uncertainty, Santoine had turned to that
barometer which reflects day by day, even from hour to hour, the most
obscure events and the most secret knowledge.

"How is the market?" he inquired.

There was something approaching to a panic on the stock-exchange, it
appeared. Some movement, arising from causes not yet clear, had
dropped the bottom out of a score of important stocks. The broker was
only able to relate that about an hour after the opening of the
exchange, selling had developed in certain issues and prices were going
down in complete lack of support.

"How is Pacific Midlands?" Santoine asked.

"It led the decline."

Santoine felt the blood in his temples. "M. a