I waited at the wheel while he called. I knew that the baronet was not at home, as a week before Lola had told me that he had gone to San Remo. Nevertheless, Rayne went inside, and was there quite half an hour. I was puzzled at his absence, but the reason seemed plain when the butler, bowing him out, exclaimed: "I am so sorry, Mr. Rayne, but the telephone people are, I fear, very slack in these days. It takes so long to get a number." So Rayne had gone to Heathcote in order to telephone to somebody in great urgency--somebody he dare not speak with from Overstow. As we drove back again, Rayne said: "Of course, George, you will never breathe a word of this--well, this little _contretemps_--or of its result. When I'm up against the wall I always hit hard. That's the only way. I'm not going to be blackmailed!" "The affair does not concern me," I replied. "What I hear in your presence I never repeat." "I'm glad you appreciate your position," he answered. "I'm a good employer to those who trust me, but an infernally bad one to those who doubt, who blunder, or who betray me, as you have probably learned," he said in a hard voice, as we swung into the handsome lodge gates of Overstow. Just before luncheon Rayne was called to the telephone. I was in the room at the time. He apparently recognized the voice, and scribbled something upon the pad before him. "Will you repeat that?" he asked. "I want to be quite clear." Then he listened again very intently. "Right! I'll be with you at ten to-night," he replied, and then hung up the receiver. "I must go to London," he said, turning to me. "You'll drive me into York, and I can catch the four-thirty up. You stay here and meet that Italian chap to-morrow at six, and tell him that I'm up at Half Moon Street. Give him my address, and ask him to see me there. After you've seen him, start in the car for London and carry out the instructions I gave you on Monday." Then he went to his room, changed his clothes, and came down to lunch in very bright spirits. It seemed that by the Italian's visit he was now not in the least perturbed. I drove him with Lola to York, where he went to London and Lola to Scarborough. Afterwards I dined at the Station Hotel alone, and returned to Overstow, which seemed chill and lonely. The local doctor happily looked in during the evening, and I played him a game at billiards. In impatient curiosity I waited until next day, when, punctually at six o'clock, Signor Gori was shown into a little room adjoining the great hall, and there I joined him in the capacity of a busy man's secretary. "I much regret, Signor Gori," I said, after we had bowed, "but Mr. Rayne was called to London quite unexpectedly upon some very urgent business. He presents his apologies and asks whether you can manage to meet him in London when it is convenient to you. Will you telephone to him?" And I gave him the address of Rayne's rooms.