called on Antony Ferrara
to-day, didn't you? How did he receive you?"

"That brings me to something else I wanted to tell you," continued
Robert, squirting soda-water into his glass. "Myra--goes there."

"Where--to his chambers?"

"Yes."

Dr. Cairn began to pace the room again.

"I am not surprised," he admitted; "she has always been taught to
regard him in the light of a brother. But nevertheless we must put a
stop to it. How did you learn this?"

Robert Cairn gave him an account of the morning's incidents,
describing Ferrara's chambers with a minute exactness which revealed
how deep, how indelible an impression their strangeness had made upon
his mind.

"There is one thing," he concluded, "against which I am always coming
up, I puzzled over it at Oxford, and others did, too; I came against
it to-day. Who _is_ Antony Ferrara? Where did Sir Michael find him?
What kind of woman bore such a son?"

"Stop boy!" cried Dr. Cairn.

Robert started, looking at his father across the table.

"You are already in danger, Rob. I won't disguise that fact from you.
Myra Duquesne is no relation of Ferrara's; therefore, since she
inherits half of Sir Michael's fortune, a certain course must have
suggested itself to Antony. You, patently, are an obstacle! That's
bad enough, boy; let us deal with it before we look for further
trouble."

"He took up a blackened briar from the table and began to load it.

"Regarding your next move," he continued slowly, "there can be no
question. You must return to your chambers!"

"What!"

"There can be no question, Rob. A kind of attack has been made upon
you which only _you_ can repel. If you desert your chambers, it will
be repeated here. At present it is evidently localised. There are laws
governing these things; laws as immutable as any other laws in Nature.
One of them is this: the powers of darkness (to employ a conventional
and significant phrase) cannot triumph over the powers of Will. Below
the Godhead, Will is the supreme force of the Universe. _Resist_! You
_must_ resist, or you are lost!"

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I mean that destruction of mind, and of something more than mind,
threatens you. If you retreat you are lost. Go back to your rooms.
_Seek_ your foe; strive to haul him into the light and crush him! The
phenomena at your rooms belong to one of two varieties; at present it
seems impossible to classify them more closely. Both are dangerous,
though in different