by any lapse of time, although its significance was not apprehended
now.

It was remembered that Feversham rose abruptly from his chair, just
before the tattoo ceased. He crumpled the telegram loosely in his hands,
tossed it into the fire, and then, leaning his back against the
chimney-piece and upon one side of the fireplace, said again:--

"I don't know;" as though he had thrust that message, whatever it might
be, from his mind, and was summing up in this indefinite way the
argument which had gone before. Thus that long silence was broken, and a
spell was lifted. But the fire took hold upon the telegram and shook it,
so that it moved like a thing alive and in pain. It twisted, and part of
it unrolled, and for a second lay open and smooth of creases, lit up by
the flame and as yet untouched; so that two or three words sprang, as it
were, out of a yellow glare of fire and were legible. Then the flame
seized upon that smooth part too, and in a moment shrivelled it into
black tatters. But Captain Trench was all this while staring into the
fire.

"You return to Dublin, I suppose?" said Durrance. He had moved back
again into the room. Like his companions, he was conscious of an
unexplained relief.

"To Dublin? No; I go to Donegal in three weeks' time. There is to be a
dance. It is hoped you will come."

"I am not sure that I can manage it. There is just a chance, I believe,
should trouble come in the East, that I may go out on the staff." The
talk thus came round again to the chances of peace and war, and held in
that quarter till the boom of the Westminster clock told that the hour
was eleven. Captain Trench rose from his seat on the last stroke;
Willoughby and Durrance followed his example.

"I shall see you to-morrow," said Durrance to Feversham.

"As usual," replied Harry; and his three guests descended from his
rooms and walked across the Park together. At the corner of Pall Mall,
however, they parted company, Durrance mounting St. James's Street,
while Trench and Willoughby crossed the road into St. James's Square.
There Trench slipped his arm through Willoughby's, to Willoughby's
surprise, for Trench was an undemonstrative man.

"You know Castleton's address?" he asked.

"Albemarle Street," Willoughby answered, and added the number.

"He leaves Euston at twelve o'clock. It is now ten minutes past eleven.
Are you curious, Willoughby? I confess to curiosity. I am an inquisitive
methodical person, and when