It had all happened so suddenly, so fantastically, that it was some minutes before he could straighten it out. First he had the impression of her, very young, very frightened, very beautiful. But there was no question of the reality of her terror. All the feelings of danger that he had had with Tony last night came crowding back now. It was true then? It hadn’t only been Tony’s imagination. After all, Janet must know. She hadn’t lived with her father all those years without knowing more about it than he, Maradick, possibly could. She wouldn’t have been likely to have taken the risk of seeing him like that if there was nothing in it, if there was only the mere ordinary domestic quarrel in it. But above all, there was the terror in her eyes; that he had seen. He could not, he must not, leave her then. There was danger threatening her somewhere. The whole business had entirely changed from his original conception of it. It had been, at first, merely the love affair of a boy and girl, and he, from a pleasant sense of romance and a comfortable conviction that it was all good for his middle-aged solidity, had had his share in it. But now it had become suddenly a serious and most urgent affair, perhaps even a matter of life and of death. He turned, as he had turned before, to Punch. There was no time to lose, and he was the man to see about it; he must find him at once. The lights were coming out in the town as he passed through the streets; there were not many people about, and the twilight was lingering in the air so that all the colours of the sky and the houses and the white stretches of pavement had a faint pure light. The sky was the very tenderest blue, and the last gleam from the setting sun still lingered about the dark peaks and pinnacles of the houses. He was soon on the outskirts of the town, and at last he trod the white high road. At the farther turn were Punch’s lodgings. There was a full round globe of a moon, and below him he could hear the distant beating of the sea. Some one was walking rapidly behind him; he turned round, and to his astonishment saw, as the man came up to him, that it was the very person for whom he was looking. “Ah! that’s splendid, Garrick,” he said, “I was just coming for you. I’m a bit worried and I want your advice.” “I’m a bit worried too, sir, as a matter of fact,” said Punch, “but if there’s anything I can do——” Maradick saw now that the man was very different from his usual cheerful self. He was looking anxious, and his eyes were staring down the road as though he were expecting to see something. “What’s the matter?” said Maradick.