a large
oak-panelled study, lined with bookshelves and having long windows,
which, when uncurtained, would look out on the Embankment. Now they were
draped with crimson velvet, the sort of hangings that normal men with no
female belongings invariably choose. By the door stood a tall folding
screen, covered with red satin and oriental embroidery. There were
bronzes and a few marble busts on top of the low bookshelves; on the oak
panelling, here and there, hung a huge Chinese plate, here and there a
sporting picture. With one glance I took in the whole interior, and saw
that it was thoroughly masculine. In a large fireplace some logs of
wood, evidently not long ago ignited, were crackling. Suddenly aware
that I was very cold, I walked across the room and--shivering--held out
my hands to the blaze. But I still kept the khaki coat hanging over my
arm.

"Poor child, you look frozen!" said Eagle. "Why didn't you put on your
coat?"

I laughed--a nervous, excited laugh. "_My_ coat!" I echoed. "Look at
it!"

So saying, I stretched out my arm to display the garment, and Eagle saw
what it was.

"Khaki uniform!" he exclaimed. "From the U. S. A. By Jove! Is it Tony
Dalziel's?"

"Indeed it is not," I returned. "I'm here to tell you about it. Oh,
Eagle, what _should_ I have done if you hadn't come home?"

"You oughtn't to be here, dear Peggy," he said. "And I'm not sure that I
ought to have brought you in, but I've got into the habit of trusting
you when you tell me that a thing's important."

"It _is_ important," I cut him short. "So important I hardly know where
to begin."

"Your wits are too quick for you to be in doubt long," Eagle flattered
me, smiling; "and you must begin at once, dear child, because for the
sake of all the conventionalities I can't let you make me a long call,
good as it is to see you here. We are alone in the place now, so it's
all right for the moment. The servant my friend Jim White lends me with
the rooms doesn't stay at night. He lights the fire and puts everything
shipshape, and then leaves me in peace till morning. But Jim himself,
who is doing interpreter's work in France, has run back for the day on
business. He is with some War Office chaps for the evening, but any time
after twelve o'clock I expect him back to stay the night. You must be
gone before then, so you see we have twenty minutes at most."

"Rome was saved in _one_ minute, I've always heard," I said. "Eagle,
this coat was Sidne