dy done several
times, when my eyes fell upon a piece of paper which had been screwed up
and flung there. Curiosity prompted me to pick it out of the cinders, for
it struck me that it must have been thrown there by Phrida before I had
entered the room.

To my surprise I saw the moment I held it in my hand that it was a
telegram. Opening it carefully I found that it was addressed to her,
therefore she had no doubt cast it upon the fire when I had so suddenly
entered.

I read it, and stood open-mouthed and amazed.

By it the perfidy of the woman I loved, alas! became revealed.

She had deceived me!

CHAPTER XV.

AN EFFACED IDENTITY.

The telegram was signed with the initial "D."--Digby!

The words I read were--"Have discovered T suspects. Exercise greatest
care, and remember your promise. We shall meet again soon."

The message showed that it had been handed in at Brussels at one o'clock
that afternoon.

Brussels! So he was hiding there. Yes, I would lose no time in crossing
to the gay little Belgian capital and search him out.

Before giving him up to the police I would meet him face to face and
demand the truth. I would compel him to speak.

Should I retain possession of the message? I reflected. But, on
consideration, I saw that when I had left, Phrida might return to recover
it. If I replaced it where I had found it she would remain in ignorance
of the knowledge I had gained.

So I screwed it up again and put it back among the cinders in the grate,
afterwards leaving the house.

Next morning I stepped out upon the platform of the great Gare du Nord in
Brussels--a city I knew well, as I had often been there on business--and
drove in a taxi along the busy, bustling Boulevard Auspach to the Grand
Hotel.

In the courtyard, as I got out, the frock-coated and urbane manager
welcomed me warmly, for I had frequently been his guest, and I was shown
to a large room overlooking the Boulevard where I had a wash and changed.

Then descending, I called a taxi and immediately began a tour of the
various hotels where I thought it most likely that the man I sought might
be.

The morning was crisp and cold, with a perfect sky and brilliant
sunshine, bright and cheerful indeed after the mist and gloom of January
in London.

Somehow the aspect, even in winter, is always brighter across the channel
than in our much maligned little island. They know not the "pea-souper"
on the other side of the Straits of D