agreeable hour. I hope that you will allow me to have the pleasure of calling again.” [Pg 97] Madame bowed and took his hand. Her own was clammy and wet. To Melun, Westerham only nodded. The more he dealt with this man the more he regarded him as a lackey to be ordered here and there. “I trust,” he said, and there was an undertone of command in his voice, “that I shall see you at the hotel to-night.” When he gained the street, Westerham told his chauffeur to go home; he had been cramped by travelling in the car, and had a wish to walk. He stepped out briskly towards St. John's Wood Road. At the corner between the Red Lion Hotel and the underground station he saw a news-boy yelling for dear life and waving about him a fiery-coloured placard. The wind caught it, and blowing it flat against the lad's knees enabled Westerham to read the contents' bill:— CONTENTS “Extraordinary Gagging Outrage in the West End.” Extraordinary Gagging Outrage in the West End. There were times when Westerham suffered from the quick intuition of a woman, and at this moment it came home to him that this contents' bill affected himself. His second thoughts were that his first impression was nonsense, but his third thoughts were that it was foolish to distrust his intuition; crossing the road, he bought a copy of the paper from the news-boy. [Pg 98] [Pg 98] So certain was he that he was in some way connected with the gagging outrage, of which he as yet knew nothing, that he opened the paper perfectly prepared for a shock. It was well that he had braced himself, for in heavy type on the main page he read the following:— “An extraordinary gagging outrage was discovered at about four o'clock this afternoon at No. 17B Bruton Street, Bond Street. The scene was the flat of a Mr. James Robinson, a gentleman who took a suite of these fashionable chambers less than a week ago. B “Mr. Robinson, who, it is
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