declared. "Come along, Ducaine."

I hesitated, but a glance from Lady Angela settled the matter. For
another such I would have walked into hell. Ray and I started off
together, and I was not long before I spoke of the things which were in
my mind.

"Colonel Ray," I said, "when I saw you this morning you made two
statements, both of which were false."

Ray brought out his pipe and began to fill it in leisurely fashion.

"Go on," he said. "What were they?"

"The first was that you had come down from London by the newspaper train
this morning, and the second was that you had received your injuries in
a hansom cab accident."

His pipe was started, and he puffed out dense volumes of smoke with an
air of keen enjoyment.

"Worst of having a woman for your hostess," he remarked, "one can't
smoke except a sickly cigarette or two. You should take to a pipe,
Ducaine."

"Will you be good enough to explain those two misstatements, Colonel
Ray?"

"Lies, both of them!" he answered, with grim cheerfulness. "Rotten
lies, and I hate telling 'em. The hansom cab accident must have sounded
a bit thin."

"It did," I assured him.

He removed his pipe from his teeth, and pushed down the tobacco with the
end of his finger.

"I came down from town by the same train that you did," he said, "and as
for my broken head and smashed arm, you did it yourself."

"I imagined so," I answered. "Perhaps you will admit that you owe me
some explanation." He laughed, a deep bass laugh, and looked down at me
with a gleam of humour in his black eyes.

"Come," he said, "I think that the boot is on the other leg. My head is
exceedingly painful and my leg is very stiff. For a young man of your
build you have a most surprising muscle."

"I am to understand, then, that it was you who committed an unprovoked
assault upon me--who planned to have me waylaid in that dastardly
fashion?"

"Do you think," Ray asked quietly, "that I should be such a damned
fool?"

"What am I to think, then, what am I to believe?" I asked, with a sudden
anger. "You found me starving, and you gave me employment, but ever
since I started my work life has become a huge ugly riddle. Are you my
friend or my enemy? I do not know. There is a drama being played out
before my very eyes. The figures in it move about me continually, yet I
alone am blindfolded. I am trusted to almost an incredible extent.
Great issues are confided to me. I have been given such a post as a man
mig