Michael’s instructions were few and brief. That evening, when Adele walked home to her lodgings, she was conscious that a man was following her, and after her previous night’s adventure this fact would have played havoc with her nerves but for the note she found waiting when she got indoors. It was from Michael. “Would you mind if I put a Scotland Yard man to watch you, to see that you do not get into mischief! I don’t think there’s any danger that you will, but I shall feel ever so much easier in my mind if you will endure this annoyance.” She read the letter and her brows knit. So she was being shadowed! It was an uncomfortable experience, and yet she could not very well object, could not indeed feel anything but a sense of warm gratitude toward this ubiquitous and pushful young man, who seemed determined not to let her out of his sight. CHAPTER XVI THE BROWN MAN FROM NOWHERE WITH a brand-new grievance against life, Lawley Foss gathered his forces to avenge himself upon the world that had treated him so harshly. And first and most powerful of his forces was Stella Mendoza. There was a council of war held in the drawing-room of the pretty little house that Stella had taken when she joined the Knebworth Corporation. The third of the party was Mr. Reggie Connolly. And as they were mutually sympathetic, so were they mutually unselfish—characteristically so. “We’ve been treated disgracefully by Knebworth, Mr. Foss, especially you. I think, compared with your case, mine is nothing.” “It is the way he has handled you that makes me sore,” said Foss energetically. “An artiste of your standing!” “The work you’ve done for him! And Reggie—he treated him like a dog!” “Personally, it doesn’t matter to me,” said Reggie. “I can always find a contract—it’s you——” “For the matter of that, we can _all_ find contracts,” interrupted Stella with a taste of acid in her voice: “I can have my own company when I please, and I’ve got two directors mad to direct me, and two men I know would put up every cent of money to give me my own company—at least, they’d put up a lot. And Chauncey Seller is raving to play opposite me, and you know what a star he is; and he’d let me be featured and go into small type himself. He’s a lovely man, and the best juvenile in this country or any other.” Mr. Connolly coughed. “The point is, can we get the money _now_?” asked Foss, practical for once. There was no immediate and enthusiastic assurance from the girl. “Because, if not, I think I can get all I want,” said Foss surprisingly. “I won’t say from whom, or how I’m going to get it. But I’m certain I can get big money, and it will be easier to get it for some specific object than to ask for it for myself.” “Less risky?” suggested Connolly, with a desire to be in the conversation. It was an unfortunate remark, the more so since by chance he had hit the nail on the head. Foss went a dull red.