people saw Major Forrest bringing it back early in the morning."

"Did any one," Andrew asked slowly, "see Lord Ronald in the car on his
way to the station?"

"Not a soul," the Duke answered.

Andrew was honestly perplexed. Jeanne's statement that she had seen
Forrest leaving the Red Hall with the car empty except for himself, he
had never regarded seriously. Even now he could only conclude that she
had been mistaken.

"Have any large cheques been presented against your brother's account?"
he asked.

The Duke shook his head.

"Not one," he answered.

"Have the detectives any clue at all?"

"Not the ghost of one," the Duke answered. "Ronald had a few harmless
little entanglements, but absolutely nothing that could have proved of
any anxiety to him. He had several engagements during the last ten days
which I know that he meant to keep. Something must have happened to
him, God knows when or where! But here we are at the club. Andrew, I
see that you have no umbrella, so I need not repeat the old joke about
the bishops."

"What a selfish fellow I am!" Andrew remarked, as they seated
themselves at a small table in the luncheon room. "Here have I been
bothering you about my affairs, and all the time you have had this
thing on your mind. Berners, I want you to tell me something."

"Go ahead," the Duke answered.

"Have you any idea in your head that Ronald has come to any harm at the
Red Hall?"

The Duke shook his head.

"No!" he answered decidedly. "Frankly, if he had been there with
Forrest alone, that would have been my first idea, but with your
brother there, and the Princess, it is impossible to suspect anything,
even if one knew what to suspect. The only possible clue as to his
disappearance which is connected in any way with the Red Hall is that I
understand he was paying attentions to Miss Le Mesurier, which she was
disinclined to accept."

Andrew nodded.

"I think," he said, "that is probable."

"On the other hand," the Duke continued, "Ronald isn't in the least the
sort of man to make away with himself or hide, because a girl, whom he
could not have known very well, refused to marry him."

"Have you seen anything of the Princess in town?" Andrew asked, a
little irrelevantly.

"I met her with her stepdaughter at Hereford House last night," the
Duke answered. "The Princess was looking as brilliant as ever, but the
little girl was pale and bored. She had a dozen men around her, and not
a smile fo