es, Limited, and during that period
have taken the sum of L25,000."

Tarling dropped the paper and caught the girl as she fainted.

CHAPTER XXV

MILBURGH'S LAST BLUFF

Milburgh had gone too far. He had hoped to carry through this scene
without the actual disclosure of the confession. In his shrewd, clever
way he had realised before Tarling himself, that the detective from
Shanghai, this heir to the Lyne millions, had fallen under the spell of
the girl's beauty, and all his conjectures had been confirmed by the
scene he had witnessed, no less than by the conversation he had overheard
before the door was opened.

He was seeking immunity and safety. The man was in a panic, though this
Tarling did not realise, and was making his last desperate throw for the
life that he loved, that life of ease and comfort to secure which he had
risked so much.

Milburgh had lived in terror that Odette Rider would betray him, and
because of his panicky fear that she had told all to the detective that
night he brought her back to London from Ashford, he had dared attempt to
silence the man whom he believed was the recipient of the girl's
confidence.

Those shots in the foggy night which had nearly ended the career of Jack
Tarling had their explanation in Milburgh's terror of exposure. One
person in the world, one living person, could place him in the felon's
dock, and if she betrayed him----

Tarling had carried the girl to a couch and had laid her down. He went
quickly into his bedroom, switching on the light, to get a glass of
water. It was Milburgh's opportunity. A little fire was burning in the
sitting-room. Swiftly he picked the confession from the floor and thrust
it into his pocket.

On a little table stood a writing cabinet. From this he took a sheet of
the hotel paper, crumpled it up and thrust it into the fire. It was
blazing when Tarling returned.

"What are you doing?" he asked, halting by the side of the couch.

"I am burning the young lady's confession," said Milburgh calmly. "I do
not think it is desirable in the interests----"

"Wait," said Tarling calmly.

He lowered the girl's head and sprinkled some of the water on her face,
and she opened her eyes with a little shudder.

Tarling left her for a second and walked to the fire. The paper was burnt
save a scrap of the edge that had not caught, and this he lifted
gingerly, looked at it for a moment, then cast his eyes round the room.
He saw that