Grewgus was a past-master in the art of shadowing. Behind the hurrying man came the tall, thin form of the detective. And over his shoulder, as he wrote the message, Grewgus read the words: “Stormont, Effington, Surrey. It must be dropped. See me to-morrow without fail--Edwards.” After reading it, Grewgus crept stealthily away, and was in the street again, while Edwards, unconscious that he had been watched, was presenting the telegram at the counter. Circumstantial evidence, it is true, but of the very strongest character. What did that wire mean? One thing, and one thing only. Edwards had been so thoroughly frightened that he was afraid to go on with the Wraysbury affair, had advised his friend Stormont of the necessity of dropping it, and urged him to see him to-morrow to tell him what had happened. It was convincing proof that Stormont was in the plot. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE It was a couple of days before Lydon found an opportunity of breaking to Jasper Stormont the painful news about his brother. In the meantime he had received from Grewgus an account of the interview at the _Cecil_, and the dispatch of the telegram to Effington. On his return to Brighton in the late afternoon, he was fortunate enough to find his future father-in-law sitting alone in the lounge; Gloria and her mother were out shopping. There was a somewhat worried expression on the banker’s face. “Had a letter from Howard by the last post in,” he explained. “It looks to me as if he were within measurable distance of the end we have foreseen and predicted. He writes that the big _coup_ on which he was engaged has unexpectedly fallen through, and this places him in a most awkward predicament for the immediate future. He has made up his mind that he must give up Effington, reluctant as he is to part from a place to which he has become so attached. He adds, what I suppose we both suspected, that it is heavily mortgaged, and that when a sale is effected, there will be very little left for him. He has already apprised my sister of the alteration in his fortunes, and begs me to break it gently to Gloria. Somewhat to my surprise, he has made no request for money. I suppose he finds the future so dark, that any little help I could give him would be useless, and that he must make a drastic change in his mode of life. I must own candidly, my sympathy would be keener if his own insensate folly were not the cause of the disaster.” Here was a splendid opportunity, thought Lydon. The big _coup_ on which Stormont was engaged, which was to repair his tottering fortunes, had failed to come off. It was easy to guess what the _coup_ was--the extraction of that immense sum of money from young Wraysbury. The abandonment of the prospect which had been nipped in the bud by the visit of Grewgus to the _Hotel Cecil_ had brought him to the ground.