The other came back and stood, perplexed and troubled, with the clothes bundled together in his arms, and a guilty look in his eyes as though he had been surprised in the act of stealing. "You don't mean it?" he said.--"Not seriously?" "I'm perfectly serious, and entirely rational," Lawless replied quietly. "If you are really anxious that I shouldn't overtax my strength you'll stay and help me dress." And so it was that the Colonel and Mrs Lawless were kept waiting for the expected summons. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. Colonel Grey led Mrs Lawless into a room on the right of the hall and rang the bell. He ordered wine, which he insisted on his companion drinking. He also requested that two bedrooms should be in readiness and a meal prepared. The ordinary affairs of life could not be neglected even if the issues at stake were distressingly serious. The Colonel was feeling more settled in mind since he was in possession of the facts. There was no immediate cause for alarm, he decided; and sought to hearten Mrs Lawless with his sanguine views. But though she appeared to listen she was too obviously nervous to attend to what he said. She sipped her wine, sitting by the fluttering curtains near the open window, looking out at the sunshine. "Perhaps I ought not to have come," she said once, and appeared while looking at nothing in particular to be watching the road with grave intentness. "I don't think he'll consent to see me." She was remembering how recently he had said to her that if she sent for him again he would not come. She had not sent, but her presence there amounted to the same thing. And then after a while the door opened and he came in. The Colonel uttered a sudden exclamation. "My dear fellow!" he cried in astonishment, his manner charged with grave solicitude. "My dear fellow! Is this wise?" Mrs Lawless sprang up from her chair, but he put out a hand and motioned her back, and with her startled eyes on his leaden face, she sank down again without speaking. Lawless took a seat. "I don't know how you came to hear of this," he said. "I didn't intend it should get about. They're making more of it than they need. In a few days I should have been back in Cape Town." He looked inquiringly at the Colonel. "You've seen Hayhurst, I suppose?" "Yes. He delivered the letters safely." He sat forward and stared at the ghastly suffering face. "He gave me a fairly graphic history of their recovery. The whole circumstances were a huge surprise,--huge. It was a masterly undertaking. The service you have rendered is incalculable. When the time comes we shall know how to thank you more adequately, in the meanwhile you have our very earnest gratitude; and I can only express my sincere regret that the result should be so disastrous for you." Colonel Grey advanced his hand. To his surprise Lawless refused to take it.