'ad.'?" Terry raged, walking up and down
the room.

"Quite simply," I said. "I'll get Jim Courtenaye on long-distance 'phone
at the Abbey, where he's had a telephone installed. He doesn't live
there, but at Courtenaye Coombe, a village close by. However, I hear
he's at the Abbey from morn till dewy eve, so I'll ring him up. What he
doesn't know about the Scarletts he'll find out so quickly you'll not
have time to turn."

"How do you know he'll be so quick?" persisted Terry. "If he's only your
forty-fourth cousin he may be luke-warm----"

I stopped him with a look. "Whatever else Jim Courtenaye may be, he's
_not_ luke-warm!" I said. "He has red hair and black eyes. And he is
either my fiercest enemy or my warmest friend, I'm not sure which.
Anyhow, he saved my life once, at great trouble and danger to himself;
so I don't think he'll hesitate at getting a little information for me
if I pay him the compliment of calling him up on the 'phone."

"I _see_!" said Terry. And I believe he did see--perhaps more than I
meant him to see. But at worst, he would in future realize that there
_were_ men on earth not so blind to my attractions as he.

While Terry 'phoned from the Carstairs' flat to the companion of
Princess Avalesco, I 'phoned from mine to Jim. And I could not help it
if my heart beat fast when I in London heard his voice answering from
Devonshire. He has one of those nice, drawly American voices that _do_
make a woman's heart beat for a man whether she likes him or hates him!

I explained what I wanted to find out about the Scarletts, and that it
must be "quite in confidence." Jim promised to make inquiries at once,
and when I politely said: "Sorry to give you so much bother," he
replied, "You needn't let _that_ worry you, my dear!"

Of course, he had no right to call me his "dear." I never heard of it
being done by the _best_ "forty-fourth cousins." But as I was asking a
favour of him, for Terry Burns' sake I let it pass.

These Americans, especially ex-cowboy ones, _do_ seem to act with
lightning rapidity. I suppose it comes from having to lasso creatures
while going at cinema speed, or else getting out of their way at the
same rate of progress! I expected to hear next morning at earliest, but
that evening, just before shutting-up time for post offices, my 'phone
bell rang. Jim Courtenaye was at the other end, talking from the Abbey.

"Lord and Lady Scarlett are living at Dun Moat," he said, "with their
ve