riend was silent for a few seconds, then he replied, 'I can swear
that one of them was Springfield. Some one had given me a blow on the
head, and I was a bit dizzy and bewildered; but I am certain that
Springfield was there.'

'Then you believe----'

'The thing's pretty evident, isn't it?' he said. 'He had a double
purpose to accomplish. If I were dead I could no longer be a danger to
him as far as St. Mabyn was concerned, and----'

'He was the next in succession to your father's title, and would
naturally be his heir,' I interrupted. 'But what happened to you after
that?'

He shuddered like a man afraid. 'I don't like to think of it,' he
said. 'As I told you there was one black spot in my past which I
couldn't remember clearly. That's it. But I have dim memories of
torture and imprisonment. I know I suffered untold agonies. I have
only fitful glimpses of that time, but in those glimpses I see myself
fighting, struggling, suffering until a great blackness fell upon me.
Then I remember nothing till I came to myself on the road to Bombay,
with my memory gone. The rest you know.'

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A BOMBSHELL

After this followed a series of events, startling, almost unbelievable
and utterly unexpected, such as only take place in real life. Had this
story been the outcome of my own imagination, I should never dare to
relate them; but because I have undertaken the task of writing what
actually took place I can do no other.

This was how they happened:

We were sitting together after dinner that night in the most
commonplace fashion imaginable. Lord and Lady Carbis had announced
their intention to leave early on the following morning, and their son
had promised to go with them. George St. Mabyn and Springfield were
there, having accepted Lady Bolivick's invitation to spend the evening
with them. Norah Blackwater, who had been a guest at the house for
some days, was also there.

'I think as I am leaving to-morrow,' and Jack only slightly raised his
voice, 'that I ought to tell you all something, something--important.'

Instantly there was a deathly silence, and with a quick movement every
one turned to the speaker.

'I imagine my motives may be questioned,' he went on. 'I am sure, too,
that what I say will be denied; but that doesn't matter.'

He hesitated a second as if doubtful how he had best continue, but the
tone of his voice and the purport of his words had done their work.
Even L