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and departed. Charlie followed at his heels. He saw Julie and Bradshaw on the lawn, and paused beside them. “You wish ride to town?” he inquired of the latter.

“No, thanks,” Bradshaw replied. “I’ve got my car to-day. Besides, Julie has just persuaded me to stay for lunch.”

“May life hold for her no sterner task than such persuasion,” smiled Chan. “I do not wish to cloud your future, Miss Julie, but must warn you that I return here soon.”

He was skirting the house when Jessop appeared at the lanai door. “Ah—er—Constable,” he said. “May I ask you to step inside just a moment?”

Struck by the seriousness of the butler’s manner, Charlie passed through the door which the servant held open. “You have something to say to me?” he asked.

“I have, sir. Kindly come with me.” Jessop led the way into a small reception-room near the front of the house. He entered it first—evidence of unusual abstraction on his part. “Oh—I beg your pardon, sir. I'll just close this door, so we may have an undisturbed téte-à-téte.”

“Time is none too plentiful with me——” Chan began, somewhat surprised by these elaborate preparations.

“I know that, Constable, I will—er—plunge in at once.” In spite of this promise, he hesitated. “My old father, who was for more than forty years the trusted employee of a rather exacting duke, remarked to me in my youth: ‘A good servant, Cedric, sees all, knows all, but tells nothing.’ It is only after prolonged and