There were a number of things at the office demanding my attention, and I was so late in getting there and the morning passed so rapidly that when the office-boy came in and announced that Mr. Grady and Mr. Simmonds were outside and wished to see me, I did not, for a moment, connect their visit with Godfrey. Then I looked at my watch, saw that it was five minutes to twelve, and realised that the actors were assembling. "Show them in," I said, and they entered together a minute later. Grady was evidently much perturbed. His usually florid face was drawn and haggard, his cheeks hung in ugly lines, there were dark pouches under his eyes, and the eyes themselves were blood-shot. I guessed that he had not been to bed; that he had spent the night searching for Crochard--and it was easy enough to see that the search had been unsuccessful. Simmonds, too, was looking rather shaky, and no doubt still felt the after-effects of that whiff of poison. "I'm glad to see you are better, Simmonds," I said, shaking hands with him. "That was a close call." "It certainly was," Simmonds agreed, sinking into a chair. "If I had got a little more of it, I'd never have waked up." "Do you remember anything about it?" "Not a thing. One minute we were sitting there talking together as nice as you please--and the next thing I knew was when I woke up in the bank." "Where's that man Godfrey?" broke in Grady. "He said he'd be here at noon," I said, and glanced at my watch. "It's noon now. Were you to meet him here?" Grady glanced at me suspiciously. "Don't you know nothing about it?" he asked. "I only know that Godfrey asked me to be here at noon to-day. What's up?" "Blamed if I know," said Grady sulkily. "I got word from him that I'd better be here, and I thought maybe he might know something. I'm so dizzy over last night's business that I'm running around in circles this morning. But I won't wait for him. He can't make me do that! Come along, Simmonds." "Wait a minute," I broke in, as the outer door opened. "Perhaps that's Godfrey, now." And so it proved. He came in accompanied by a man whom I knew to be Arthur Shearrow, chief counsel for the _Record_. Godfrey nodded all around. "I think you know Mr. Shearrow," he said, placing on my desk a small leather bag he was carrying. "This is Mr. Lester, Mr. Shearrow," he added, and we shook hands. "The object of this conference, Lester," he concluded, "is to straighten out certain matters connected with the Michaelovitch diamonds--and incidentally to give the _Record_ the biggest scoop it has had for months." "I ain't here to fix up no scoop for the _Record_", broke in Grady. "That paper never did treat me right." "It has treated you as well as you deserved," retorted Godfrey. "I'm going to talk plainly to you, Grady. Your goose is cooked. You can't hold on for an hour after last night's get-away becomes public." "We'll see about that!" growled Grady, but the fight had evidently been taken out of him.