of something suitable to say.

Having elucidated this little side-line of mystery, the matter passed
from the young Commissioner's mind. It happened that morning that his
work consisted of dealing with John Lexman's estate.

With the disappearance of the couple he had taken over control of
their belongings. It had not embarrassed him to discover that he was an
executor under Lexman's will, for he had already acted as trustee to the
wife's small estate, and had been one of the parties to the ante-nuptial
contract which John Lexman had made before his marriage.

The estate revenues had increased very considerably. All the vanished
author's books were selling as they had never sold before, and the
executor's work was made the heavier by the fact that Grace Lexman
had possessed an aunt who had most in inconsiderately died, leaving a
considerable fortune to her "unhappy niece."

"I will keep the trusteeship another year," he told the solicitor who
came to consult him that morning. "At the end of that time I shall go to
the court for relief."

"Do you think they will ever turn up?" asked the solicitor, an elderly
and unimaginative man.

"Of course, they'll turn up!" said T. X. impatiently; "all the heroes of
Lexman's books turn up sooner or later. He will discover himself to us
at a suitable moment, and we shall be properly thrilled."

That Lexman would return he was sure. It was a faith from which he did
not swerve.

He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the
magnificent, would play into his hands.

There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek,
but on the whole they were stories and rumours which were difficult to
separate from the malicious gossip which invariably attaches itself to
the rich and to the successful.

One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian
chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers of
wider and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a Greek, he
had indubitably descended in a direct line from one of those old Mprets
of Albania, who had exercised their brief authority over that turbulent
land.

The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare himself.
It was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this reason, and none
other, and that whatever might have been the irregularities of his
youth--and there were adduced concrete instances--he was working toward
an end with a singleness o