he said very
little about Mr. Brinn. He sounded interesting and "--she hesitated and
her eyes filled with tears--"I asked Dad to invite him home." Again she
paused. This retrospection, by making the dead seem to live again, added
to the horror of her sudden bereavement, and Harley would most gladly
have spared her more. "Dad seemed strangely disinclined to do so," she
added.

At that the keen investigator came to life within Harley. "Your father
did not appear anxious to bring Mr. Brinn to his home?" he asked,
eagerly.

"Not at all anxious. This was all the more strange because Dad invited
Mr. Brinn to his club."

"He gave no reason for his refusal?"

"Oh, there was no refusal, Mr. Harley. He merely evaded the matter. I
never knew why."

"H'm," muttered Harley. "And now, Miss Abingdon, can you enlighten
me respecting the identity of the Oriental gentleman with whom he had
latterly become acquainted?"

Phil Abingdon glanced rapidly at Doctor McMurdoch and then lowered
her head. She did not answer at once. "I know to whom you refer, Mr.
Harley," she said, finally. "But it was I who had made this gentleman's
acquaintance. My father did not know him."

"Then I wonder why he mentioned him?" murmured Harley.

"That I cannot imagine. I have been wondering ever since Doctor
McMurdoch told me."

"You recognize the person to whom Sir Charles referred?"

"Yes. He could only have meant Ormuz Khan."

"Ormuz Khan--" echoed Harley. "Where have I heard that name?"

"He visits England periodically, I believe. In fact, he has a house
somewhere near London. I met him at Lady Vail's."

"Lady Vail's? His excellency moves, then, in diplomatic circles? Odd
that I cannot place him."

"I have a vague idea, Mr. Harley, that he is a financier. I seem to have
heard that he had something to do with the Imperial Bank of Iran." She
glanced naively at Harley. "Is there such a bank?" she asked.

"There is," he replied. "Am I to understand that Ormuz Khan is a
Persian?"

"I believe he is a Persian," said Phil Abingdon, rather confusedly. "To
be quite frank, I know very little about him."

Paul Harley gazed steadily at the speaker for a moment. "Can you think
of any reason why Sir Charles should have worried about this gentleman?"
he asked.

The girl lowered her head again. "He paid me a lot of attention," she
finally confessed.

"This meeting at Lady Vail's, then, was the first of many?"

"Oh, no--not of many! I saw him two