lp you up the steps and out of this."

She clung to his arm, and they struggled up the private path to the
house. Mills let them in with many expressions of concern, and Helen
came hurrying to them from the background.

"I went out to see the storm," Philippa explained weakly, "and I saw Mr.
Lessingham's boat brought in."

"And Mr. Lessingham will come this way at once," Helen insisted. "I
haven't had a real case since I got my certificate, and I'm going to
bind his head up."

Philippa began to feel her strength returning. The horror which lay
behind those few minutes of nightmare rose up again in her mind. Mills
had hurried on into the bathroom, and the other two were preparing to
follow. She stopped them.

"Mr. Lessingham," she said, "listen. Captain Griffiths has been here. He
knows or guesses everything."

"Everything?"

Philippa nodded.

"Helen must bind your head up, of course," she continued. "After that,
think! What can we do? Captain Griffiths knows that there was no Hamar
Lessingham at college with Dick, that he never visited Wood Norton, that
there is some mystery about your arrival here, and he told me to my face
that he believes you to be Bertram Maderstrom."

"What a meddlesome fellow!" Lessingham grumbled, holding his
handkerchief to his forehead.

"Oh, please be serious!" Helen begged, looking up from the bandage which
she was preparing. "This is horrible!"

"Don't I know it!" Philippa groaned. "Mr. Lessingham, you must please
try and escape from here. You can have the car, if you like. There must
be some place where you can go and hide until you can get away from the
country."

"But I'm dining here to-night," Lessingham protested. "I'm not going to
hide anywhere."

The two women exchanged glances of despair.

"Can't I make you understand!" Philippa exclaimed pathetically. "You're
in danger here--really in danger!"

Lessingham's demeanour showed no appreciation of the situation.

"Of course, I can quite understand," he said, "that Griffiths is
suspicious about me, but, after all, no one can prove that I have broken
the law here, and I shall not make things any better by attempting an
opera bouffe flight. Can I have my head tied up and come and talk to you
about it later on?"

"Oh, if you like," Philippa assented weakly. "I can't argue."

She made her way up to her room and changed her wet clothes. When she
came down, Lessingham was standing on the hearth rug in the library,
with