d the room, the building seemed
to rock. Close upon that frightful sound followed a cry so piercing
that it seemed to ice the blood in Dr. Cairn's veins.

"Stop, sir, stop! My God! what are you doing!"

A swift blow struck the dagger from his hand and the figure on the bed
sprang upright. Swaying dizzily, Dr. Cairn stood there in the
darkness, and as the voice of awakened sleepers reached his ears from
adjoining rooms, the electric light was switched on, and across the
bed, the bed upon which he had thought Antony Ferrara lay, he saw his
son, Robert Cairn!

No one else was in the room. But on the carpet at his feet lay an
ancient dagger, the hilt covered with beautiful and intricate gold and
enamel work.

Rigid with a mutual horror, these two so strangely met stood staring
at one another across the room. Everyone in the hotel, it would
appear, had been awakened by the explosion, which, as if by the
intervention of God, had stayed the hand of Dr. Cairn--had spared him
from a deed impossible to contemplate.

There were sounds of running footsteps everywhere; but the origin of
the disturbance at that moment had no interest for these two. Robert
was the first to break the silence.

"Merciful God, sir!" he whispered huskily, "how did you come to be
here? What is the matter? Are you ill?"

Dr. Cairn extended his hands like one groping in darkness.

"Rob, give me a moment, to think, to collect myself. Why am I here? By
all that is wonderful, why are _you_ here?"

"I am here to meet you."

"To meet me! I had no idea that you were well enough for the journey,
and if you came to meet me, why--"

"That's it, sir! Why did you send me that wireless?"

"I sent no wireless, boy!"

Robert Cairn, with a little colour returning to his pale cheeks,
advanced and grasped his father's hand.

"But after I arrived here to meet the boat, sir I received a wireless
from the P. and O. due in the morning, to say that you had changed
your mind, and come _via_ Brindisi."

Dr. Cairn glanced at the dagger upon the carpet, repressed a shudder,
and replied in a voice which he struggled to make firm:

"_I_ did not send that wireless!"

"Then you actually came by the boat which arrived last night?--and to
think that I was asleep in the same hotel! What an amazing--"

"Amazing indeed, Rob, and the result of a cunning and well planned
scheme." He raised his eyes, looking fixedly at his son. "You
understand the scheme; the scheme that