s own story beyond any shadow of a
mistake. His cousin's great wealth was a fiction. The business to which
his own fortune and the whole of his grandfather's money had been
devoted, was even now tottering. He remembered the rumours he had heard
of Douglas' extravagance, his establishment in London, the burden of his
college debts. And then a further light flashed in upon him. Twenty
thousand pounds in America!--lying there, too, for Douglas under a false
name! He drew out one of the documents which he had packed and glanced at
it more carefully. Then he replaced it, a little dazed. Douglas had
planned to leave England, then, with this crisis looming over him. Why?
Philip for a moment sat down on the arm of an easy-chair. A grim sense of
humour suddenly parted his lips. He threw back his head and laughed.
Douglas Romilly had actually been coming to America to disappear! It was
incredible but it was true.

He left the cable carefully open upon the dressing-table, and, picking up
the small leather case, left the room. He reached the lift, happily
escaping the observation of the young lady seated at her desk, and
descended into the hall. Once amongst the crowd of people who thronged
the corridors, he found it perfectly simple to leave the hotel by one of
the side entrances. He walked to the corner of the street and drew a
little breath. Then he lit a cigarette and strolled along Broadway,
curiously light-hearted, his spirits rising at every step. He was free
for ever from that other hateful personality. Mr. Douglas Romilly, of the
Douglas Romilly Shoe Company, had paid his brief visit to America and
passed on.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

After a fortnight of his new life, Philip took stock of himself and his
belongings. In the first place, then, he owned a new name, taken bodily
from certain documents which he had brought with him from England.
Further, as Mr. Merton Ware, he was the monthly tenant of a small but not
uncomfortable suite of rooms on the top story of a residential hotel in
the purlieus of Broadway. He had also, apparently, been a collector of
newspapers of certain dates, all of which contained some such paragraph
as this:

DOUGLAS ROMILLY, WEALTHY ENGLISH BOOT
MANUFACTURER, DISAPPEARS FROM THE WALDORF ASTORIA
HOTEL. WALKS OUT OF HIS ROOM WITHIN AN HOUR OF
LANDING AND HAS NOT BEEN HEARD OF SINCE. DOWN TOWN
HAUNTS SEARCHED. FOUL PLAY FEARED.

SUPERINTENDENT SHIPMAN DECLARES HIMSELF BAF