deed already
conveyed it in the one outstanding word "danger." For an instant the
professor's mind sickened with that weakness which had been his
dreadful legacy of war. But it passed immediately. Something stronger,
deeper in, took quiet command. Desire was in danger! Shock has a way at
times of giving back what shock has taken.--Spence became his own man
once more--cool, ready.

With infinite care he went over the Chinaman's disjointed sentences.
They had been written under stress.

That much presented no difficulty. Li Ho, the imperturbable, had
permitted himself a fit of nerves ... Something must have happened.
Something new. Something which threatened a danger not sufficiently
emphasized before. In his former letter Li Ho had indeed intimated that
a return was not desirable, but it had been an intimation based on
general principles only. This was different. This had all the marks of
urgent warning. "No more safe being married as per inclosed." This
cryptic remark might mean that further enlightenment was to be sought
in the enclosures.

Spence picked up the second letter. It was addressed to Dr. Herbert
Farr at Vancouver, and was merely a formal notice from a firm of
English solicitors--post-marked London--a well-known firm, probably,
from the address on their letterhead.

"Dr. Herbert Farr,
Vancouver, B. C.

Dear Sir:

As executors in the estate of Mrs. Henry Strangeways we beg to inform
you that the allowance paid to you for the maintenance of Miss Desire
Farr is hereby discontinued. This action is taken under the terms of
our late clients will,--whereby such allowance ceases upon the marriage
of the said Desire Farr or her voluntary removal from your roof and
care.

Obediently yours,
Hervey & Ellis."

The professor whistled. Here was enlightenment indeed! A very
sufficient explanation of the old man's grim determination to block any
self-dependence on Desire's part which would mean "removal from" his
"care." Here was someone paying a steady (and perhaps a fat) allowance
for the young girl's maintenance--someone of whom she herself had
certainly never heard and of whose bounty she remained completely
ignorant. It was easy enough now to follow Li Ho's reasoning. If it was
for this allowance, and this alone, that the old doctor had kept Desire
with him, long after her presence had become a matter of indifference
or even of distaste, the ending of the allowance meant also the ending
of his tole