house close to you and let it for seven years and invested a comfortable sum for him in British securities. So I gather that he means to come back in a little while.”

Colonel Vanderfelt was relieved upon one score, but it was only to have his anxiety increased upon the other.

“When did you hear from Paul last?” he asked, and Mr. Ferguson answered:

“Some while ago. Let me think. Yes, it must be a year at the least.”

Colonel Vanderfelt repeated the conversation to his wife on his return to King’s Corner, and both of them shirked the question which was heavy at their hearts.

“It will be pleasant to have him as a neighbour,” said Mrs. Vanderfelt.

“Yes,” replied the Colonel. “And it might be quite soon! Seven years he has let the house for. And we are getting no younger, are we! The sooner the better, I say!”

Some look upon his wife’s face, a droop of her shoulders, made him stop; and it was in a quiet and strangely altered voice that he began again:

“We are both pretending, Milly, and that’s the truth. We are afraid. It would be hard lines if he died before he did what he aimed to do. Yet we have got to face that possibility.”

Mrs. Vanderfelt was turning over a plan in her mind.

“I think that it’s time we had news of him,” she said. “There’s a friend he has mentioned several times in his letters. He was with him at St. Cyr and met him again at Casablanca—Gerard de Montignac.”

Colonel Vanderfelt went in search of Paul Ravenel’s letters. They were kept in a drawer of the writing-table in his bedroom and made a big bundle by now.

“De Montignac. That was the fellow’s name. Let’s look at the last ones for his rank. He’s a captain of the Chasseurs d’Afrique. I’ll write to Casablanca to-night, my dear, on the chance of his still being there.”

Colonel Vanderfelt was easier in his mind after he had posted the letter.

“That was a good idea of mine, Millie,” he said to his wife. “We shall get some news now.”

Gerard de Montignac was still in Casablanca, but at the time when Colonel Vanderfelt was writing to him, he was himself just as anxious as the Colonel about the safety of Paul 

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