like
this after her angel goodness to me. And say to her, too, that I will
write very soon.

"Good-bye, Sandy boy."

"Well? Well?" Kitty's patience was getting exhausted. Moreover there
was something in the set look on Sandy's face that frightened her.

He handed her the letter.

"She's bolted with Maryon Rooke," he said simply.

When Kitty had absorbed the contents of the letter she looked up at him
blankly. The shock of it held her momentarily speechless. Then, after
what seemed to her an endless silence, she stammered out:

"Nan--gone! And it's too late to stop her!"

"It's not!" The words leapt from Sandy's lips. "We _must_ stop her!"

The absolute determination in his voice infected Kitty. She felt her
courage rising to the emergency.

"What can we do?" she asked quietly. She was as steady as a rock now.

Sandy dropped into a chair, absent-mindedly lighting one of the
"gaspers" he had so recently purchased.

"We must work it out," he said slowly. "Rooke told you they were going
to Clovelly, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well, they're not going anywhere near. That was just a blind. They
took the London road."

"Even that mightn't mean they were going to London. They could branch
off anywhere."

"They could," agreed Sandy, puffing thoughtfully at his cigarette.
"But we've got to remember Rooke has a house in Westminster--nice
little backwater. It's just on the cards they might go there
first--wherever else they intended going on to afterwards--just to pick
up anything Rooke might want, arrange about letters and so on."

"Yes?" There was a keen light in Kitty's eyes. She was following
Sandy's thought with all a woman's quickness. "And you think you might
overtake them there?"

"I must do more than that. I must _be there first_--to receive them."

"Can you do it in the time?"

"Yes. By train. They're travelling by car, remember."

Kitty glanced at the clock.

"It's too late for you to catch the early train from St. Wennys Halt.
And there's no other till the afternoon."

"I shan't risk the afternoon train. It stops at every little wayside
station and if it were ten minutes late I'd miss the express from
Exeter."

"Then you'll motor?"

"Yes, I'll drive to Exeter, and catch the train that gets in to town
about half-past seven. Maryon isn't likely to reach London till about
an hour or so after that."

"That's settled, then. The next thing is breakfast for two," said
Kitt