see," Lord Sotherst answered.

Peter Ruff made his way to the back quarters of the house. In a little
sitting-room he found the man he sought, sitting alone. Peter Ruff
closed the door behind him.

"John Dory," he said, "I have come to have a few words with you."

The detective rose to his feet. He was in no pleasant mood. Though
the telephone wires had been flashing their news every few minutes, it
seemed, indeed, as though the car which they had chased had vanished
into space.

"What do you want to say to me?" he asked gruffly.

"I want, if I can," Peter Ruff said earnestly, "to do you a service."

Dory's eyes glittered.

"I think," he said, "that I can do without your services."

"Don't be foolish," Peter Ruff said. "You are harboring a grievance
against me which is purely an imaginary one. Now listen to the facts.
You employ your wife--which after all, Dory, I think, was not quite
the straight thing--to try and track down a young man named Spencer
Fitzgerald, who was formerly, in a small way, a client of mine. I find
your wife an agreeable companion--we become friends. Then I discover her
object, and know that I am being fooled. The end of that little episode
you remember. But tell me why should you bear me ill-will for defending
my friend and myself?"

The detective came slowly up to Peter Ruff. He took hold of the lapel
of the other's coat with his left hand, and his right hand was clenched.
But Peter Ruff did not falter.

"Listen to me," said Dory. "I will tell you what grudge I bear against
you. It was your entertainment of my wife which gave her the taste
for luxury and for gadding about. Mind, I don't blame you for that
altogether, but there the fact remains. She left me. She went on the
stage."

"Stop!" Peter Ruff said. "You must still hold me blameless. She wrote to
me. I went out with her once. The only advice I gave her was to return
to you. So far as I am concerned, I have treated her with the respect
that I would have shown my own sister."

"You lie!" Dory cried, fiercely. "A month ago, I saw her come to your
fiat. I watched for hours. She did not leave it--she did not leave it
all that night!"

"If you object to her visit," Peter Ruff said quietly, "it is my wife
whom you must blame."

John Dory relaxed his hand and took a quick step backwards.

"Your wife?" he muttered.

"Exactly!" Peter Ruff answered. "Maud--Mrs. Dory--called to see me; she
was ill--she had lost her situation--sh