nued:--

"Mr. and Miss Fielding came to me with letters from my brother, and with
many convincing proofs of their identity. We none of us had the
slightest suspicion concerning them. Their behavior was exactly what it
should have been. Nothing about them excited remark in any way, except
the unusual number of telegrams and telephone messages which Mr.
Fielding was always receiving. That, however, was quite in accord with
our ideas of an American business man, and didn't seem to us in the
least remarkable."

"The telegrams were delivered through a neighboring office?" Spencer
asked quietly.

"Yes," Lord Runton answered, "but they were all in code. I happen to
know that because the postmaster brought the first one up himself, and
explained that he was afraid that he must have made some mistake as the
message was incomprehensible. Fielding only laughed, and gave the man a
sovereign. The message was absolutely correct, he declared. He told me
afterwards that whenever he was speculating he always coded his
messages, and it seemed perfectly reasonable."

Spencer nodded.

"Just so!" he murmured.

"This morning," Lord Runton continued, "Mr. Fielding rather upset our
plans. We were all to have spent the day at the Duke's, and dined there.
There was a big shoot for the men, as you know. At breakfast-time,
however, Mr. Fielding announced that he had a man coming over with a
motor car from Norwich for them to try, and begged to be excused. So we
had to go without them.

"Von Rothe was staying with me, as you know, and just before we started
he had a telegram that a messenger from the Embassy was on his way down.
He hesitated for some time as to whether he ought not to stay at home so
as to be here when he arrived, but we persuaded him to come with us, and
promised to send him back after luncheon. When we got to Chestow,
however, the wind had become a gale, and it was impossible to shoot
decently. Von Rothe was a little uneasy all the time, I could see, so he
and I and a few of the others returned here, and the rest went up to
Chestow. Just as we arrived Fielding passed us in a great motor car with
his daughter behind. When we got to the house Von Rothe inquired for the
messenger. He was told that he was in Mr. Fielding's sitting-room, but
when we got there we found the door locked, and through the key-hole we
could hear a man groaning. We broke the door in and found Von Rothe's
messenger half unconscious, and a rifled desp