might have been in vain. For all he knew to
the contrary, the place might be watched by its late occupants who were
laughing in their sleeves.

"No use staying here any longer, Macklin," he said disgustedly. "I shall
have to go back on my tracks once more. Never do I take an amateur into
my business plans again. But it looks as if he has paid for his
indiscretion. Good night."

It was late into the following afternoon before Field saw Beatrice
Darryll again. When he did so, he had nothing to report save failure.
Beatrice listened with the greatest interest to what had taken place the
night before, but her interest gave place to grave anxiety when she
heard what had been the result of Colonel Berrington's daring action.

"Do you suppose that he is in real danger?" Beatrice asked.

"Well, I'm afraid he is," Field admitted. "You see we are dealing with
the most daring and clever and unscrupulous gang of scoundrels that I
ever encountered. They would not stick at murder or anything else if
anybody crossed them. Mind you, it was a most foolish thing for the
Colonel to do. Still, he is a soldier and a very resourceful man and he
may pull through. Again these people may not have designs on his life;
it is just possible that they might keep him a prisoner until their
plans had been successfully carried out. Of course when the Colonel was
talking to the grey lady to-night I was not supposed to listen. But I
have very good ears, and they spoke loudly at times. I gathered that the
scoundrel Sartoris was once engaged to a young lady who threw him over.
Now it occurred to me that the young lady might give me an idea or two,
provided that she is in England at the present moment."

"Why should you think that she is not here?" Beatrice asked.

"Because the engagement took place at Simla. This young lady was staying
with her brother and his wife; unfortunately I did not catch the name.
The curious part of the affair is that she is a ward of your late
father."

Beatrice looked puzzled for a moment. She did not quite understand.

"You mean that my father was guardian under a will or something of that
kind?" she asked.

"That's it, miss," Field exclaimed. "We ought to be able to identify the
young lady between us, especially as the affair only took place three
years ago or so, as I understand. If you will pardon me for saying so,
Sir Charles was a very careless gentleman, and hardly the man that a
careful parent would choose as