ong to Norcaster
as fast as you can."

Within half an hour the car stopped at the old-fashioned gateway of the
Duke's Head in Norcaster market-place, and the clerk immediately led his
two companions into the hotel and upstairs to a private sitting-room, at
the door of which he knocked. A voice bade him enter; he threw the door
open and announced the visitors.

"Miss Harborough--Mr. Brereton, Mr. Carfax," he said.

Brereton glanced sharply at the men who stood in the room, evidently
expectant of his and his companion's arrival. Carfax, a short,
middle-aged man, quick and bustling in manner, he, of course, knew: the
others were strangers. Two of them Brereton instantly set down as
detectives; there were all the marks and signs of the craft upon them.
They stood in a window, whispering together, and at them Brereton gave
but a glance. But at the fourth man, who stood on the hearthrug, he
looked long and hard. And his thoughts immediately turned to the night
on which he and Avice had visited the old woman who lived in the lonely
house on the moors and to what she had said about a tall man who had met
Harborough in her presence--a tall, bearded man. For the man who stood
there before him, looking at Avice with an interested, somewhat wistful
smile, was a tall, bearded man--a man past middle age, who looked as if
he had seen a good deal of the far-off places of the world.

Carfax had hurried forward, shaken hands with Brereton, and turned to
Avice while Brereton was making this rapid inspection.

"So here you are, Brereton--and this young lady, I suppose, is Miss
Harborough?" he said, drawing a chair forward. "Glad you've come--and I
daresay you're wondering why you've been sent for? Well--all in good
time, but first--this gentleman is Mr. John Wraythwaite."

The big man started forward, shook hands hastily with Brereton, and
turned more leisurely to Avice.

"My dear young lady!" he said. "I--I--the fact is, I'm an old friend of
your father's, and--and it will be very soon now that he's all
right--and all that sort of thing, you know! You don't know me, of
course."

Avice looked up at the big, bearded figure and from it to Brereton.

"No!" she said. "But--I think it was you who sent that money to Mr.
Brereton."

"Ah! you're anticipating, young lady!" exclaimed Carfax. "Yes--we've a
lot of talking to do. And we'd better all sit down and do it
comfortably. One moment," he continued, and turned away to the two men
i