e marsh under the nearer bank of the vanished estuary. Mr.
Mallory turned away from the window with an enigmatic smile for his
young naval friend.

"I cannot tell you what Mr. Chermside is," he said when he had produced
his cigar-case and selected a weed. "But the official Army lists--not
the ones that are quite up to date, mind you--record what he was. There
seems to be an unexplained gulf between the termination of his military
career and his presence in our midst. A hiatus, so to speak, of nearly
two years since he was an officer in the 24th Lancers undoubtedly
exists. His own account of himself is that he has recently come into
money, and that he is playing about here while awaiting the arrival of a
steam yacht on which he means to take an extended cruise. Beyond that,
both my opinion and my scanty information coincide with yours. He
strikes one as unobjectionable but reserved, and he has certainly been
dangling after the daughter of old Maynard, who has rented the Manor
House furnished for the season."

"What is Maynard?" demanded Reggie Beauchamp with persistent interest.

"A millionaire maker of screws in Birmingham."

"Then it would be queer if there was a loose screw somewhere about his
daughter's admirer," Reggie rejoined, and with a boyish laugh for his
own jest he strolled off to the billiard-room in quest of a game.

In the meanwhile Leslie Chermside and his companion had reached the
seclusion of the marshland path, at the same time plunging into a more
private conversation than was advisable on the frequented sea-front. On
their immediate left rose the tree-covered side, almost a miniature
cliff, of the ancient river-bed; to the right of them there stretched to
the opposite bank a quarter of a mile away the osiers and reeds that
carpeted the mud-flats. There was no one to see or hear.

It did not need the presentation of a visiting card with his name on it
to disclose Mr. Levi Levison's nationality. The moment he opened his
mouth to speak he stood revealed as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and even
before then, for apart from his lisping utterance he had all the bodily
peculiarities of his race. The full red lips, the beaky nose, and the
large conciliatory eyes that seemed to veil so much, could have belonged
to no one but a Jew. His clothes were flashy, but none too clean. In age
he was probably about thirty.

"I don't want to be harsh, but s'help me, Mr. Chermside, I ain't got any
option in the matter,"