f money coming to him over the Cambridgeshire."

Merries shuddered.

"May I go?" he pleaded. "There's the three hundred on the table. For
God's sake, let me go!"

Peter Ruff nodded.

"I wish you'd saved a little more," he said. "However--"

He turned the lock and Merries rushed out of the room. Ruff looked
across the room towards his secretary.

"Ring up 1535 Central," he ordered, sharply.

Peter Ruff had descended from his apartments on the top floor of the
building, in a new brown suit with which he was violently displeased, to
meet a caller.

"I am sorry to intrude--Mr. Ruff, I believe it is?" Sir Richard Dyson
said, a little irritably--"but I have not a great deal of time to
spare--"

"Most natural!" Peter Ruff declared. "Pray take a chair, Sir Richard.
You want to know, of course, about Lord Merries and poor Masters."

Sir Richard stared at his questioner, for a moment, without speech. Once
more the fear which he had succeeded in banishing for a while, shone in
his eyes--revealed itself in his white face.

"Try the easy-chair, Sir Richard," Ruff continued, pleasantly. "Leave
your hat and cane on the table there, and make yourself comfortable. I
should like to understand exactly what you have come to me for."

Sir Richard moved his head toward Miss Brown.

"My business with you," he said, "is more than ordinarily private. I
have the honour of knowing Miss--"

"Miss Brown," Peter interrupted quickly. "In these offices, this young
lady's name is Miss Violet Brown."

Sir Richard shrugged his shoulders.

"It is of no importance," he said, "only, as you may understand, my
business with you scarcely requires the presence of a third party, even
one with the discretion which I am sure Miss--Brown possesses."

"In these matters," Ruff answered, "my secretary does not exist apart
from myself. Her presence is necessary. She takes down in shorthand
notes of our conversation. I have a shocking memory, and there are
always points which I forget. At the conclusion of our business,
whatever it may be, these notes are destroyed. I could not work without
them, however."

Sir Richard glanced a little doubtfully at the long, slim back of the
girl who sat with her face turned away from him. "Of course," he began,
"if you make yourself personally responsible for her discretion--"

"I am willing to do so," Ruff interrupted, brusquely. "I guarantee it.
Go on, please."

"I do not know, of course, where you got