ritten there the tale of his anguish, remorse, and suspense. And yet he
knew that now his ordeal was drawing to a close; in a few moments
Pargeter was due to return from his interview with Madame d'Elphis.

Walking up and down the sunny room which held for him such agonising
memories of the long hours spent there during the last three days in Tom
Pargeter's company, Vanderlyn lived again every moment of his own
strange interview with the soothsayer. The impression of sincerity which
Madame d'Elphis had produced on him had now had time to fade, and he
asked himself with nervous dread whether she was, after all, likely to
do what she had promised. Nay, was it in her power to lie,--or rather to
tell the half-truth which was all that he had asked her to tell?

At last there came the sound of the front-door of the villa opening,
shutting; and then those made by Pargeter's quick, short footsteps
striking the marble floor of the hall, and echoing through the silent
house.

Vanderlyn stopped short in his restless pacing. He turned and waited.

The door was flung open, and Pargeter came in. Quietly shutting the door
behind him, he walked down the room to where the other man, with his
back to the window, stood waiting for him. The three days and nights
which had carved indelible lines on the American's already seamed face,
had left Pargeter's untouched; just now he looked grave, subdued, but
his face had lost the expression of perplexed anger and anxiety which
had alone betrayed the varying emotions he had experienced since the
disappearance of his wife.

At last, when close to Vanderlyn, he spoke--in a low, gruff whisper.
"Grid!" he exclaimed, "Grid, old man, don't be shocked! La d'Elphis says
that Peggy's dead--that she's been dead three days!"

Vanderlyn could not speak. He stared dumbly at the other, and as he
realised the relief, almost the joy, in Pargeter's voice, there came
over him a horrible impulse to strike--and then to flee.

"There, you can see it for yourself--" Pargeter held out, with fingers
twitching with excitement, a sheet of note-paper. "La d'Elphis wrote it
all down! I didn't see her--she's ill. But this is not the first time
I've had to work her in that way, and it does just as well. Her sister
managed everything,--she took her in one of Peggy's gloves which I'd
brought with me."

Vanderlyn shuddered. He opened his mouth, but no words would come. Then
he looked down at the sheet of paper Pargeter ha