ch to hold it?"

"This?"

"This. The fight--whoever fought it--took place in the quadrangle there
at midnight."

He was overcome with astonishment, and he showed it.

"Upon my soul," he said, "I do not appear to have been told any of
the facts. Strange that O'Moy should never have mentioned that," he
muttered, and then inquired suddenly: "Where was Tremayne arrested?"

"Here," she informed him.

"Here? He was here, then, at midnight? What was he doing here?"

"I don't know. But whatever he was doing, can your lordship believe that
he would have come here to fight a secret duel?"

"It certainly puts a monstrous strain upon belief," said he. "But what
can he have been doing here?"

"I don't know," she repeated. She wanted to add a warning of O'Moy. She
was tempted to tell his lordship of the odd words that O'Moy had used to
her last night concerning Tremayne. But she hesitated, and her courage
failed her. Lord Wellington was so great a man, bearing the destinies of
nations on his shoulders, and already he had wasted upon her so much
of the time that belonged to the world and history, that she feared to
trespass further; and whilst she hesitated came Colquhoun Grant clanking
across the quadrangle looking for his lordship. He had come up, he
announced, standing straight and stiff before them, to see O'Moy, but
hearing of Lord Wellington's presence, had preferred to see his lordship
in the first instance.

"And indeed you arrive very opportunely, Grant," his lordship confessed.

He turned to take his leave of Jack Armytage's niece.

"I'll not forget either Mr. Butler or Captain Tremayne," he promised
her, and his stern face softened into a gentle, friendly smile. "They
are very fortunate in their champion."

CHAPTER XV. THE WALLET

"A queer, mysterious business this death of Samoval," said Colonel
Grant.

"So I was beginning to perceive," Wellington agreed, his brow dark.

They were alone together in the quadrangle under the trellis, through
which the sun, already high, was dappling the table at which his
lordship sat.

"It would be easier to read if it were not for the duelling swords.
Those and the nature of Samoval's wound certainly point unanswerably to
a duel. Otherwise there would be considerable evidence that Samoval was
a spy caught in the act and dealt with out of hand as he deserved."

"How? Count Samoval a spy?"

"In the French interest," answered the colonel without emotion, "actin