swered.

The President signed his name. Then he turned the handle of the
telephone.

"You may show Lord Fothergill in!" he ordered.

CHAPTER XII

AN OLD FRIEND

It was perhaps as well for Andrew Pelham that he could not see Phyllis'
look as she entered the room. An English gentleman, she had been told,
was waiting to see her, and she had thought of no one but Duncombe. It
was true that she had sent him away, but only an hour ago the Marquise
had told her that her emancipation was close at hand. He too might have
had a hint! The little smile, however, died away from her lips as she
saw who was waiting for her with such manifest impatience.

"You, Andrew!" she exclaimed in amazement. "Why, however did you find me
out?"

He took both her hands in his. The look upon his face was transfiguring.

"At last! At last!" he exclaimed. "Never mind how I found you! Tell me,
what does it all mean? Are you here of your own free will?"

"Absolutely!" she answered.

"It was you at Runton?"

"Yes."

"Under a false name--with a man who committed robbery!"

She shrugged her shoulders a little wearily.

"My dear Andrew!" she said, "I will admit that I have been doing all
manner of incomprehensible things. I couldn't explain everything. It
would take too long. What I did, I did for Guy's sake, and of my own
free will. It will be all over in a day or two now, and we shall be
coming back to Raynesworth. Then I will tell you tales of our adventures
which will make your hair stand on end."

"It isn't true about Guy, then?" he exclaimed.

She hesitated for a moment.

"Andrew," she said, "I cannot tell you anything. It must sound rather
horrid of me, but I cannot help it. I want you to go away. In a day or
two I will write."

He looked at her in pained bewilderment.

"But, Phyllis," he protested, "I am one of your oldest friends! You ask
me to go away and leave you here with strangers, without a word of
explanation. Why, I have been weeks searching for you."

"Andrew," she said, "I know it. I don't want to be unkind. I don't want
you to think that I have forgotten that you are, as you say, one of my
oldest friends. But there are times when one's friends are a source of
danger rather than pleasure. Frankly, this is one of them."

His face darkened. He looked slowly around the magnificent room. He saw
little, but what he could distinguish was impressive.

"Your riddles," he said gravely, "are hard to read. You wa