who had
been driving a small car very slowly on the other side of the road,
suddenly swung across, drew up by the kerb and leaned towards him.

"Hugh--Major Thomson, what is the matter with you?"

He dabbed his cheek with his pocket handkerchief.

"Nothing," he answered simply.

"Don't be silly!" she exclaimed. "I felt certain that I heard a shot
just now, and I saw you reel and spin round for a moment. And your
cheek, too--it's all over blood!"

He smiled.

"A bullet did come my way and just graze my cheek," he admitted. "Most
extraordinary thing. I wonder whether one of those fellows in the Park
had an accident with his rifle."

He glanced thoughtfully across towards where a number of khaki-clad
figures were dimly visible behind the railings. Geraldine looked at him
severely.

"Of course," she began, "if you really think that I don't know the
difference between the report of a pistol and a rifle shot--"

He interrupted her.

"I was wrong," he confessed. "Forgive me. You see, my head was a little
turned. Some one did deliberately fire at me, and I believe it was from
a grey racing-car. I couldn't see who was driving it and it was out of
sight almost at once."

"But I never heard of such a thing!" she exclaimed. "Why on earth should
they fire at you? You haven't any enemies, have you?"

"Not that I know of," he assured her.

She stepped from the car and came lightly over to his side.

"Take your handkerchief away," she ordered. "Don't be foolish. You
forget that I am a certificated nurse."

He raised his handkerchief and she looked for a moment at the long scar.
Her face grew serious.

"Another half-inch," she murmured,--"Hugh, what an abominable thing! A
deliberate attempt at murder here, at nine o'clock in the morning, in
the Park! I can't understand it."

"Well, I've been under fire before," he remarked, smiling.

"Get into my car at once," she directed. "I'll drive you to a chemist's
and put something on that. You can't go about as you are, and it will
have healed up then in a day or two."

He obeyed at once and she drove off.

"Of course, I'm a little bewildered about it still," she went on.
"I suppose you ought to go to the police-station. It was really a
deliberate attempt at assassination, wasn't it? If you had been--"

She paused and he completed her sentence with a humorous twinkle in his
eyes.

"If I had been a person of importance, eh? Well, you see, even I must
have been in so