n
sheer desperation, to Ghent.

And in Ghent, in a certain hotel in the _Place d'Armes_, I ran up against
Burton Withers, the man who used to be on the old _Dispatch_, and the
very last person I could have wished to see. I didn't ask him if he'd
seen Jevons; I didn't mention Jevons; but before we'd parted he had told
me that, by the way, he'd come across Jevons in Bruges. He was going
about with my typist, Miss Thesiger. They were staying in the same hotel.

I tried to say as casually as I could that Miss Thesiger had wired to me
that she was staying in that hotel with her people.

The little bounder then intimated that when he saw Miss Thesiger her
people were less conspicuous than Jevons.

I replied that that was probably the reason why they'd asked me to join
them when I'd seen Ghent.

Withers advised me to go on seeing Ghent if I wanted to be popular.
They--Jevons and Miss Thesiger--didn't look at all as if they wanted to
be seen, much less joined.

He had the air of knowing a good deal more than he cared to tell me; but
then he always had that air; you may say he lived on it.

I asked him presently (in a suitable context) whether he was going back
soon; and to my relief I learned that he had only just come out--for his
paper--and was going on into Germany through Brussels. He wouldn't be
back in England for another three weeks or more.

He wouldn't be back, I reflected, to tell what he knew or what he didn't
know, till Reggie Thesiger had sailed.

I got rid of the little beast on the first likely pretext, having dealt
with him so urbanely that he couldn't possibly think he had told me
anything I saw reason to believe and therefore to resent.

Then I went back to Bruges.

This time my quest was fairly easy. I didn't know what hotel Jevons
was staying in; but I did know the sort of hotel that Withers stayed
in when he was travelling for his paper. My errand was narrowed down to
three or four (good, but not too good), and the first I struck in the
Market-Place was Withers's hotel. It was one of those that three days ago
had known nothing of Jevons.

I inquired this time for Withers and was told that he had left that
morning. I engaged a room and strolled out into the Market-Place. I
visited the Cathedral, the Belfry, and the Beguinage, in the hope of
coming suddenly across Viola and Jevons.

I did not come across them in any of those places; but I was not very
earnest about the search. I was so sure th