nk back into her chair with a piquant and yet pathetic little
grimace.

"You tell me always to wait," she complained. "I will be patient, but
you shall tell me this. You are so kind to me. You make or mar my life.
You must care a little? Please?"

He was standing up now. He kissed her hands fondly. His voice had all
the old ring in it.

"More than for any woman on earth, dear Rosamund!"

Seaman, in a light grey suit, a panama, and a white beflowered tie, had
lost something of the placid urbanity of a few months ago. He was hot
and tired with travel. There were new lines in his face and a queer
expression of anxiety about his eyes, at the corners of which little
wrinkles had begun to appear. He responded to Dominey's welcome with a
fervour which was almost feverish, scrutinised him closely, as though
expecting to find some change, and finally sank into an easy-chair with
a little gesture of relief. He had been carrying a small, brown despatch
case, which he laid on the carpet by his side.

"You have news?" Dominey asked.

"Yes," was the momentous reply, "I have news."

Dominey rang the bell. He had already surmised, from the dressing-case
and coats in the hall, that his visitor had come direct from the
station.

"What will you have?" he enquired.

"A bottle of hock with seltzer water, and ice if you have it," Seaman
replied. "Also a plate of cold meat, but it must be served here.
And afterwards the biggest cigar you have. I have indeed news, news
disturbing, news magnificent, news astounding."

Dominey gave some orders to the servant who answered his summons. For a
few moments they spoke trivialities of the journey. When everything was
served, however, and the door closed, Seaman could wait no longer. His
appetite, his thirst, his speech, seemed all stimulated to swift action.

"We are of the same temperament," he said. "That I know. We will speak
first of what is more than disturbing--a little terrifying. The mystery
of Johann Wolff has been solved."

"The man who came to us with messages from Schmidt in South Africa?"
Dominey asked. "I had almost forgotten about him."

"The same. What was at the back of his visit to us that night I cannot
even now imagine. Neither is it clear why he held aloof from me, who
am his superior in practically the same service. There we are, from the
commencement, confronted with a very singular happening, but scarcely
so singular as the denouement. Wolff vanished from you