ew the sweat
from his brow.

Then he was for stepping out into the open, and, giving flow to the
rage and surging violence that followed, calling down the man who had
dishonoured him and slaying him there under the eyes of that trull who
had brought him to this shame. But he controlled the impulse, or else
Satan controlled it for him. That way, whispered the Tempter, was too
straight and simple. He must think. He must have time to readjust his
mind to the horrible circumstances so suddenly revealed.

Very soft and silently, keeping well within the shadow of the wall,
he sidled to the door which he had left ajar. Soundlessly he pushed
it open, passed in and as soundlessly closed it again. For a moment he
stood leaning heavily against its timbers, his breath coming in short
panting sobs. Then he steadied himself and turning, made his way down
the corridor to the little study which had been fitted up for him in the
residential wing, and where sometimes he worked at night. He had been
writing there that evening ever since dinner, and he had quitted the
room only to go to his assignation with Samoval, leaving the lamp
burning on his open desk.

He opened the door, but before passing in he paused a moment, straining
his ears to listen for sounds overhead. His eyes, glancing up and down,
were arrested by a thin blade of light under a door at the end of the
corridor. It was the door of the butler's pantry, and the line of light
announced that Mullins had not yet gone to bed. At once Sir Terence
understood that, knowing him to be at work, the old servant had himself
remained below in case his master should want anything before retiring.

Continuing to move without noise, Sir Terence entered his study, closed
the door and crossed to his desk. Wearily he dropped into the chair
that stood before it, his face drawn and ghastly, his smouldering eyes
staring vacantly ahead. On the desk before him lay the letters that
he had spent the past hours in writing--one to his wife; another
to Tremayne; another to his brother in Ireland; and several others
connected with his official duties, making provision for their
uninterrupted continuance in the event of his not surviving the
encounter.

Now it happened that amongst the latter there was one that was
destined hereafter to play a considerable part; it was a note for the
Commissary-General upon a matter that demanded immediate attention, and
the only one of all those letters that need n