returned to the table.

"Did you see the paper?" asked Pinto presently.

"I saw the paper," said the colonel, not looking up from his hand. "I
make a point of reading the newspapers."

"You see they've made a feature of----"

"Mention no names," said the colonel. "I know they've made a feature
about it. So much the better. Everything depends----"

It was as he spoke that Solomon White came into the room. Boundary knew
it was he before the door handle turned, before the hum of voices in the
hall outside had ceased, but it was with a great pretence of surprise
that he looked up.

"Why, if it isn't Solomon White!" he said.

The man was haggard and sick-looking. He had evidently dressed in a
hurry, for his cravat was ill-tied and the collar gaped. He strode
slowly up to the table and Boundary's manservant, with a little grin,
closed the door.

"Where have you been all this time, Solomon?" asked Boundary genially.
"Sit you down and play a hand."

"You know why I've come," breathed Solomon White.

"Surely I know why you've come. You've come to explain where you've
been, old boy. Sit down," said Boundary.

"Where is my daughter?" asked White.

"Where is your daughter?" repeated the colonel. "Well, that's a queer
question to ask us. _We've_ been saying where is Solomon White all this
time."

"I've been to Brighton," said the man, "but that's nothing to do with
it."

"Been at Brighton? A very pleasant place, too," said Boundary. "And what
were you doing at Brighton?"

"Keeping out of your way, damn you!" said White fiercely. "Trying to
cure the fear of you which has made a rank coward of me. If you wanted
to find a method for curing me, colonel, you've found it. I've come back
for my daughter--where is she?"

The colonel pushed his chair back from the table and looked up with a
quizzical smile.

"Now you're not going to take it hard, Solomon," he said. "We had to
have you back and that was the only scheme we could think of. You see,
there are lots of little bits of business that have to be cleared up,
bits of business in which you had a hand the same as my other business
associates."

"Where is the girl?" asked the man steadily.

"Well, I'm going to admit to you," said the colonel, with a fine show of
frankness, "that I've put her away--no harm has come to her, you
understand. She's at a little place at Putney Heath, a house I took
specially for her, surrounded by loving guardians----"

"Like Pinto?"