n and drove off, waving one
hugely gloved hand to Irvin as he stood in the porch looking after her.
When the red tail-light had vanished in the mist he returned to the
house and re-entered the library. If only all his wife's friends
were like Margaret Halley, he mused, he might have been spared the
insupportable misgivings which were goading him to madness. His mind
filled with poisonous suspicions, he resumed his pacing of the library,
awaiting and dreading that which should confirm his blackest theories.
He was unaware of the fact that throughout the interview he had held the
stump of cigar between his teeth. He held it there yet, pacing, pacing
up and down the long room.

Then came the expected summons. The telephone bell rang. Monte Irvin
clenched his hands and inhaled deeply. His color changed in a
manner that would have aroused a physician's interest. Regaining his
self-possession by a visible effort, he crossed to a small side-table
upon which the instrument rested. Rolling the cigar stump into the left
corner of his mouth, he took up the receiver.

"Hallo!" he said.

"Someone named Brisley, sir, wishes--"

"Put him through to me here."

"Very good, sir."

A short interval, then:

"Yes?" said Monte Irvin.

"My name is Brisley. I have a message for Mr. Monte Irvin."

"Monte Irvin speaking. Anything to report, Brisley?"

Irvin's deep, rich voice was not entirely under control.

"Yes, sir. The lady drove by taxicab from Prince's Gate to Albemarle
Street."

"Ah!"

"Went up to chambers of Sir Lucien Pyne and was admitted."

"Well?"

"Twenty minutes later came out. Lady was with Sir Lucien. Both walked
around to old Bond Street. The Honorable Quentin Gray--"

"Ah!" breathed Irvin.

"--Overtook them there. He got out of a cab. He joined them. All three
up to apartments of a professional crystal-gazer styling himself Kazmah
'the dream-reader.'"

A puzzled expression began to steal over the face of Monte Irvin. At
the sound of the telephone bell he had paled somewhat. Now he began to
recover his habitual florid coloring.

"Go on," he directed, for the speaker had paused.

"Seven to ten minutes later," resumed the nasal voice, "Mr. Gray came
down. He hailed a passing cab, but man refused to stop. Mr. Gray seemed
to be very irritable."

The fact that the invisible speaker was reading from a notebook he
betrayed by his monotonous intonation and abbreviated sentences, which
resembled those of a c