whom
the inquiry pivoted was within arm's length all the time! He had
actually turned to the door in order to summon the hotel clerk when
that worthy himself knocked and entered.

"The Earl of Valletort is here, and wishes to have a word with you, Mr.
Steingall," he said.

The detective's present grim conceit ran somewhat to the effect that if
he remained long enough in the Central Hotel he would accumulate
sufficient evidence to electrocute three criminals, at least, and send
others to the penitentiary, but he merely nodded and said:

"Show his lordship right in."

He was conscious of a dramatic pause in the conversation which had
broken out between the others. Once again had Mrs. Curtis been
rendered dumb by the shock of an unforeseen development. Devar, who
was having the night of his life, leaned back against the wainscot,
Uncle Horace peered hopelessly into an empty tumbler, but dared not
suggest a second highball, while Curtis, after one sharp glance at the
detective, whom he credited with having arranged this surprise in some
inexplicable way, thrust his hands into his trousers' pockets and
awaited the advent of Hermione's father with a calmness that he himself
could hardly account for. Hitherto, his adventurous life had been made
up of strenuous effort tempered by the Anglo-Saxon phlegm which
disregards dangers and difficulties. Prolonged strain of an emotional
nature was new to him. He understood, but did not apply the knowledge,
that when the human vessel is full to the brim with excitement, the
earth may rock and the heavens roll together in fury without the power
to add one more drop of gall or distress to the completed measure. At
that instant, if the Earl of Valletort had been accompanied by the
embodied ghosts of his ancestors, Curtis would have viewed the
procession with unconcern.

The Earl, a handsome slightly built, erect man of fifty, hawk-nosed,
keen-eyed, with drooping mustache and carefully arranged thin gray
hair, glanced at Curtis as he might have regarded any other stranger.

"I have disposed of my friend," he said to Steingall, "and I hurried
back here on off-chance that you might still be engaged in----"

"Before your lordship enters into details, allow me to introduce Mr.
John D. Curtis," said Steingall, silently thanking the fates which had
brought about a meeting so opportune to his own task if embarrassing to
its chief actors.

"Mr. John D. Curtis, the--the person who con