rence at possible danger alternating with impatience at
the singular obstinacy of his accusers. Throughout this time the face
she knew so well, mirrored that perfect calm which she understood and
admired, since it was the reflex of a calm, untroubled soul.

But now there came a change in the face: or rather not in the face but
in the soul behind it. The change came at Colonel Harris's last words;
a change so subtle, so undetermined, that she was quite sure her
father had not perceived it. But movement there was none; one mere,
almost imperceptible, quiver of the eyelids--nothing more. The mouth
beneath the slight fair moustache had not trembled, the brow remained
smooth, the breath came and went as evenly as before.

But the change was there, nevertheless! The gray tint just round the
eyes, the stony look in the pupils themselves a tiny speck of moisture
round the wing of each nostril. Colonel Harris had not looked at Luke
whilst he spoke of the stick. He was staring straight in front of him,
hardly conscious of the silence which had cast a strange and mystic
spell on these three people standing here in the banal atmosphere of a
London hotel.

It was Luke who broke the silence. He said quite quietly asking the
question as if it related to a most trivial, most indifferent matter:

"Did Sir Thomas show you the stick?"

The colonel nodded in acquiescence.

"It was my stick, I suppose?"

The query was so sudden, so unexpected that Colonel Harris
instinctively uttered an exclamation of amazement.

"Luke! By God, man! Are you mad?"

Louisa said nothing. She was trying to understand the
un-understandable. Luke almost smiled at the other man's bewilderment.

"No, sir," he said, "not mad I think. I only want to know how I
stand."

"How you stand, man?" ejaculated Colonel Harris with uncontrolled
vehemence. "Great Heavens, don't you realize that here is some damned
conspiracy as mysterious as it is damnable, and that you will have to
look this seriously in the face, if you don't wish to find yourself in
the dock before the next four and twenty hours?"

"I am," replied Luke simply, "looking the matter squarely in the face,
sir, but I don't quite see how I can avoid standing in the dock as you
say, before the next four and twenty hours. You see I had quarrelled
with Philip, and my stick--which contained a dagger--was found in the
park, covered with mud, as you say, and other stains."

"But, hang it all, man! you did