le him at all?"

"I never so much as saw him, at least in a business sense."

"Ah," Sartoris cried. There was a deep ring in his voice. "Is that
really a fact? You don't know then that certain papers and documents
belonging to your father passed to Sir Charles? Your father told you
nothing of this?"

"Not a word, except in a joking way. He spoke of securities and
mortgages and the like that were to be my fortune when he died. He told
me to ask Sir Charles about them."

"Did you take the trouble to do so?"

The girl thought a moment before she replied.

"Once," she said. "Once I did say something to Sir Charles. He told me
that every paper in his possession had been deposited with his lawyers."

Once more Sartoris shaded his eyes with his hand. Field could see his
fingers shaking. In a hard voice Sartoris asked if the girl meant the
family solicitor.

"No, I don't," she said without the slightest hesitation. "As a matter
of fact the family solicitor would have nothing to do with Sir
Charles--he found him too expensive. It was some little man in one of
the Inns, Gray's Inn or Clement's Inn, who kept his creditors at bay.
But more than that I am afraid I cannot tell you."

Sartoris muttered something that might have been the strangling of an
oath. Field began to understand. Papers, and probably valuable papers,
belonging to Sir Charles were necessary; and the gang of thieves was at
a loss what to do without them.

"I dare say I can find out," Sartoris said. "If I do, I fancy you will
benefit considerably. More than that I dare not venture for the present,
my dear young lady, because so frequently these things turn out very
differently. If you could think of the name of that solicitor----"

"Perhaps I might," the girl said. "I have a good memory, especially for
trifles. If I do recollect the name I will write you here. Do you know
you remind me of a man I knew in India. He was much younger than you, of
course, and different in many ways. And yet every time I look at you and
hear your voice I think of him."

"As a matter of fact I never was in India at all," Sartoris said
hastily. There was a nasty ring in his voice that caused the girl to
look up, whereon Sartoris laughed, seeing that he had made a mistake.
"Excuse me, but this neuralgia of mine is very troublesome to-night. And
I am afraid that I am detaining you."

The girl muttered something soothing and sympathetic; at the same time
she rose and crossed