hat made
the onlookers gasp. When it had disappeared, they became suddenly
alive to the suspicion that Jack McMurtrie had practised a ruse on
them. They gave a yell and looked round for him. A motor-car was
making at forty miles an hour for Toronto.

CHAPTER XVII

A MIDNIGHT VIGIL

Mr. William Barracombe was the most punctual of men. He entered his
office in Mincing Lane precisely at ten o'clock on Thursday morning.
His letters had already been sorted and arranged in two neat piles on
his desk. Topmost on one of them was a cablegram from Toronto: "Meet
me home eleven p.m. Smith." He never admitted that anything would
surprise him, and in fact he showed no sign of excitement, but looked
through his correspondence methodically, distributing the papers among
several baskets to be dealt with by respective members of his staff,
or by himself. This done, he rang for the office boy, ordered him to
remove the baskets, and then took up the cablegram again.

"By Jove!" he said to himself.

He reached down his A B C and looked out a train for Cosham.

"I may as well go down to dinner," he thought.

His next proceeding was to telephone to his chambers instructing his
man to meet him at Waterloo with his suit-case. Then he wrote a
telegram to Mrs. Smith announcing that he would dine with her that
evening. Thereupon he was ready to tackle the business problems which
would absorb his attention until five o'clock.

On arriving at Cosham Park he was taken to the study, where Kate Smith
was awaiting him.

"You have heard from Charley?" she said anxiously, after shaking
hands.

"Yes. Have you?"

"He wired 'All well.' He is very economical. All his messages have
been just those two words, except yesterday's from Honolulu. That was
'Father safe.'"

"That's magnificent. He didn't tell me that, the rascal. Like you, I
have nothing before but 'All well.'"

"Do tell me what he wired you this time. I was afraid when we got your
telegram that something had happened."

"Not a bit of it. He expects to be here at eleven."

"How delightful! I am quite proud of him, really. You can come and see
Mother now. I wanted to speak to you first because she knows nothing
about Charley's journey. I thought it best to keep it from her until
I knew about Father, and having kept it so long I decided to leave it
for Charley to tell himself. I don't know whether I can manage it. I'm
so excited I could scream."

"Don't mind me. Ah! How