It was a point to report to Rayne. Somehow I felt a rising antagonism towards the young man who had successfully extracted fifty pounds from my dainty little companion who was so passionately fond of jewels and who frequently wore some exquisite rings and pendants. What hold could the fellow have upon her? Next morning she appeared bright and radiant at breakfast--which, of course, she took with her rather retiring friend Elsie Wallis--and I smiled across at her. She was, after all, a bright up-to-date little married woman possessed of great wealth and influence, her whole life being devoted to self-enjoyment at the expense of her elderly and despised husband. She was a typical girl of society who had married an old man for his money and afterwards sought younger male society. We have them to-day in hundreds on every side. After breakfast we went together along the sea-front where the band was playing. The weather was glorious and Eastbourne looked at its best. I now regarded her as a mystery after what I had witnessed on the previous night. "I'm horribly bored here!" she declared to me, as in her white summer gown she strolled by my side towards the town. "Owen is not coming, so I think I shall soon get away somewhere." "What about your friend Elsie?" I asked, wondering whether her decision had any connection with the unwelcome arrival of that mysterious young man in tweeds. "Oh, she's going back to London to-day--so I shall be horribly lonely," she replied. I recollected her nervousness and apprehension before she had paid the man who had undoubtedly blackmailed her, and became more than ever puzzled. CHAPTER VIII THE CAT'S TOOTH That night I went to my room at about ten minutes before midnight, and waited for the appearance of my secret visitor. Just as midnight struck the handle of the door slowly turned and a well-dressed, dark-mustached man of about thirty-five entered silently and bowed. "Mr. Hargreave?" he asked with a foreign accent. "Or is it Cottingham?" "Which you please," I replied in a low voice, laughing. "I have this to hand to you," he said as he produced the portion of the visiting-card which I found fitted exactly to that which I had received from Rayne. "Well?" I asked, inviting him to a chair and afterwards turning the key in the door. "What message have you for me?" Then I noticed for the first time that he bore in his hand a small brown leather attache-case. "I know you well by name, Mr. Hargreave," he said. "You are one of us, I know. Therefore 'The Golden Face' sends you a message." "Have you seen him?" I asked. "No," was his reply. "Though we have been in association for several years, I always receive messages through Vincent Duperre." I knew that only too well. Rudolph Rayne took the most elaborate precautions to preserve a clean pair of hands himself, no matter what dirty work he planned to be carried out by others.