ause anyone deprived you of it."

"Damnation!" exclaimed Piers furiously, and with the word the storm of
his anger broke like a fiery torrent, sweeping all before it, "are you
taking me to task, you--you--for this accursed trick of Fate? How was I
to know that this infernal little sot would turn up here? Why, I don't so
much as know the fellow's name! I had forgotten his very existence! Where
the devil is he? Let me find him, and break every bone in his body!" He
whirled round to the door, but in a moment was back again. "Tudor! Damn
you! Where's the key?"

"In my pocket," said Tudor quietly. "And, Piers, before you go--since I
am your ally in spite of myself--let me warn you to keep your head!
There's no sense in murdering another man. It won't improve your case.
There's no sense in running amok. Sit down for Heaven's sake, and review
the situation quietly!"

The calm words took effect. Piers stopped, arrested in spite of himself
by the other's steady insistence. He looked at Tudor with half-sullen
respect dawning behind his ungoverned fury.

"Listen!" Tudor said. "The fellow has gone. I packed him off myself. It
was a piece of sheer ill-luck that brought him home in time for this
show. He starts for America _en route_ for Australia in less than a week,
and it is utterly unlikely that either you or any of your friends will
see or hear anything more of him. Guyes himself is by no means keen on
him and only had him as best man because a friend failed him at the last
minute. If you behave rationally the whole affair will probably pass off
of itself. Everyone knows the fellow was intoxicated, and no one is
likely to pay any lasting attention to what he said. Treat the matter as
unworthy of notice, and you will very possibly hear no more of it! But if
you kick up a row, you will simply court disaster. I am an older man than
you are. Take my word for it,--I know what I am talking about."

Piers listened in silence. The heat had gone from his face, but his eyes
still gleamed with a restless fire.

Tudor watched him keenly. Not by his own choice would he have ranged
himself on Piers' side, but circumstances having placed him there he was
oddly anxious to effect his deliverance. He was fighting heavy odds, and
he knew it, but there was a fighting strain in his nature also. He
relished the odds.

"For Heaven's sake don't be a fool and give the whole show away!" he
urged. "You have no enemies. No one will want to take the