There was that in his utterance which betokened great excitement. He was not visible to the occupants of the room. During the audible silence that followed his words, they could hear him stamping about the passage, impatiently awaiting Bruce's presence. Mrs. Hillmer quietly collapsed on the floor. She had fainted. The barrister rushed out, calling for Mrs. Smith, and responding to Sir Charles Dyke's proffered statement as to the reason for his presence by the startling cry: "Wait a bit, Dyke. There's a lady in a faint inside. We must attend to her at once." Mrs. Smith, fortunately, was at hand, and with the help of her ministrations, Mrs. Hillmer gradually regained her senses. After a whispered colloquy with White, the barrister said to Mensmore: "You must remove your sister to her residence as quickly as possible. She is far too highly strung to bear any further questioning to-night. Perhaps to-morrow, when you and she have discussed matters fully together, you may be able to send for us and clear up this wretched business." For answer Mensmore silently pressed his hand. With the help of the housekeeper he led his sister from the room, passing Sir Charles Dyke in the hall. The baronet politely turned aside, and Mensmore did not look at him, being far too engrossed with his sister to pay heed to aught else at the moment. As for Mrs. Hillmer, she was in such a state of collapse as to be practically unconscious of her surroundings. She managed to murmur at the door: "Where are you taking me to, Bertie?" "Home, dear." "Home? Oh, thank Heaven!" They all heard her, and even the detective was constrained to say: "Poor thing, she needn't have been afraid. She is suffering for some one else." Sir Charles Dyke grasped Bruce's arm. "What on earth is going on?" he said. "Merely a foolish woman worrying herself about others," replied Bruce grimly. "But those people were my old friends, Mensmore and his sister?" "Yes." "What are they doing here?" "Mensmore has been brought back to London by Mrs. Hillmer to face the allegations made against him with regard to your wife's disappearance. They came here by their own appointment, and--" "Did I not tell you that this charge against Mensmore was wild folly on the face of it?" "So it seems, when we have just discovered that your wife was killed in his sister's house, and Mrs. Hillmer persists in declaring that she was responsible for the crime." "Look here, Bruce. Don't lose your head like everybody else mixed up in this wretched business. My wife is not dead." "What!" The cry was a double one, for both Bruce and White gave simultaneous utterance to their amazement. "It is true. She is alive all the time. I have had a letter from her." "A letter. Surely, Dyke--" "I am neither mad nor drunk. The letter reached me by this morning's post. I came here with it as fast as I could travel. I have been in the train all day, and am nearly fainting from hunger."