rd of the murder, that it dawned on me
how indiscreet I had been. I might have guessed, since Miss
Mackwayte knew Mortimer--"

"Miss Mackwayte knows Mortimer?" echoed Desmond in stupefaction.

"But certainly," replied Nur-el-Din. "Was it not I myself--" She
broke off suddenly with terror in her eyes.

"Ah, no!" she whispered. "It is enough. Already I have said too
much..."

Desmond was about to speak when the door opened and a
foreign-looking maid, whom Desmond remembered to have seen in the
dancer's dressing-room, came in. She went swiftly to her mistress
and whispered something in her ear.

The dancer sprang to her feet.

"A little moment... you will excuse me..." she cried to Desmond
and ran from the room. The maid followed her, leaving Desmond
alone.

Presently, the sound of Nur-el-Din's voice raised high in anger
struck on his ears. He stole softly to the door and opened it.
Before him lay the staircase deserted. He tiptoed down the stairs
to the first landing and listened. The murmur of voices reached
him indistinctly from the room below. Then he heard Nur-el-Din
crying out again in anger.

He craned his ear over the well of the staircase, turning his
face to the window which stood on the landing. The window gave on
a small yard with a gate over which a lamp was suspended and
beyond it the fen now swathed in fog. The dancer's maid stood
beneath the lamp in earnest conversation with a man in rough
shooting clothes who held a gun under his arm. As Desmond looked
the man turned his head so that the rays of the lamp fell full
upon his face. To his unspeakable consternation and amazement,
Desmond recognized Strangwise.

CHAPTER XVII. MR. BELLWARD ARRANGES A BRIDGE EVENING

Oblivious of the voices in the room below, Desmond stood with his
face pressed against the glass of the window. Was Strangwise
staying at "The Dyke Inn"? Nothing was more probable; for the
latter had told him that he was going to spend his leave shooting
in Essex, and Morstead Fen must abound in snipe and duck.

But he and Strangwise must not meet. Desmond was chary of
submitting his disguise to the other's keen, shrewd eyes.
Strangwise knew Nur-el-Din: indeed, the dancer might have come to
the inn to be with him. If he recognized Desmond and imparted his
suspicions to the dancer, the game world be up; on the other
hand, Desmond could not take him aside and disclose his identity;
for that would be breaking faith with the Chief. T