asked the man, looking down at the silent Silva.

"Like Lollie. Now you can't deny that Lollie's a very nice girl," said
the colonel. "Sit down, Solomon, and talk things over."

"When I've got my girl I'll talk things over with you. Where is this
place?"

"It is on Putney Heath," said the colonel. "Now aren't I being
straightforward with you? If I had any bad designs against the girl,
should I tell you where she is? If you go there, Solomon, take some of
your copper friends."

"I have no copper friends," said the man angrily. "You know that well
enough. What am I that I should go to the police? Can I go to them with
clean hands?"

"Well, that's a question I've often asked myself," said the colonel.
"I've often said----"

"What is the name of the house?" interrupted White. "I want to see
whether you're playing square with me, Boundary, and if you're not,
by----"

"Don't threaten me, don't threaten me, Solomon," said the colonel with a
good-humoured gesture. "I'm a nervous man and I suffer from heart
disease. You ought to know better than that. Bishopsholme is the place.
It is the fourth big house after passing Tredennis Road--a fine villa
standing in its own grounds. It looks a bit deserted because it was
empty until a few days ago, when I put a scrap or two of furniture into
it. Why not wait----"

"First I'll find out whether you're speaking the truth, and if you're
not----"

"Gently, gently," growled Crewe. "What's the good of kicking up a row,
White? The colonel's dealing straighter with you than you're dealing
with us."

He was not in the colonel's secrets, and he himself was deceived,
thinking that the girl had been removed to the house which he now heard
about for the first time, and that the sole object of the abduction was
to bring White back.

"Stay a while," said Boundary. "It is only just nine----"

But White was gone.

He pushed past the servant, one of the readiest and most dangerous of
the colonel's instruments, and into the half-dark corridor. There was a
light on the landing below, and as he ran down the stairs he thought he
saw somebody standing there. It looked like a woman till the figure
turned, and then Solomon White stood stock still. It was the first time
he had seen Jack o' Judgment. The shimmer of the black silk coat, the
curious suggestion of pallor which the white mask conveyed, the slouch
hat, throwing a black bar of shadow diagonally across the face, lent the
figure a pecul