I am filled with shame. And yet if you only
knew how fond I am of my home.... At the same time, when I found that I
was called upon to help ladies in distress I should have refused all
offers of reward. If I had done so I should have had no need of your
pity. And yet--and yet it is very sweet to me."

He pressed the hand in his, and the pressure was returned. David forget
all about his troubles for the time; and it was very cool and pleasant
and quiet there.

"I am afraid that those notes were forced upon us," she said. "Though I
frankly believe that the enemy does not know what we have learnt to do
from you. And as to the cigar-case: would it not be easy to settle that
matter by asking a few questions?"

"My dear young lady, I have done so. And the more questions I ask the
worse it is for me. The cigar-case I claimed came from Walen's, beyond
all question, and was purchased by the mysterious individual now in the
hospital. I understood that the cigar-case was the very one I admired at
Lockhart's some time ago, and--"

"If you inquire at Lockhart's you will find such to be the case."

David looked up with a puzzled expression. Ruth spoke so seriously, and
with such an air of firm conviction, that he was absolutely staggered.

"So I did," he said. "And was informed in the most positive way by the
junior partner that the case I admired had been purchased by an American
called Smith and sent to the Metropole after he had forwarded
dollar-notes for it. Surely you don't suppose that a firm like Lockhart's
would be guilty of anything--"

Ruth rose to her feet, her face pale and resolute.

"This must be looked to," she said. "The cigar-case sent to you on that
particular night was purchased at Lockhart's by myself and paid for with
my own money!"

CHAPTER XIX

ROLLO SHOWS HIS TEETH

The blinds were all down at Longdean Grange, a new desolation seemed to
be added to the gloom of the place. Out in the village it had by some
means become known that there was somebody dead in the house, either
madam herself or one of those beautiful young ladies whom nobody had ever
seen. Children loitering about the great lodge-gates regarded Williams
with respectful awe and Dr. Walker with curiosity. The doctor was the
link connecting the Grange with the outside world.

To add to the gloom of it all the bell over the stables clanged
mournfully. The noise made Walker quite nervous as he walked up the drive
by Williams's sid