"Of course you must tell me." Colwyn's face was stern. "As I told you before, nothing you can do or say can hurt him now, and the only hope of helping him is by telling the whole truth." "It was his match-box. It had his monogram on it." "You have brought it with you?" For answer she took something from the bosom of her dress and laid it, with a heart-broken look, in Colwyn's hand. The article was a small match-box, with a regimental badge in enamel on one side, and on the other some initials in monogram. Colwyn examined it closely. "I see the initials are J.R.P.," he said. "How did you know they were his initials? You knew his name?" "Yes. He used to light cigarettes with matches from that match-box when I was with him, and one day I asked him to show it to me. He did so, and I asked him what the initials were for, and he told me they stood for his own name--James Ronald Penreath. And then he told me much about himself and his family, and--and he said he cared for me, but he was not free." She gave out the last few words in a low tone, and stood looking at him like a girl who had exposed the most sacred secret of her heart in order to help her lover. But Colwyn was not looking at her. He had opened the match-box, and was shaking out the few matches which remained in the interior. They fell, half a dozen of them, into the palm of his hand. They were wax matches, with blue heads. A sudden light leapt into the detective's eyes as he saw them--a look so strange and angry that the girl, who was watching him, recoiled a little. "What is it? What have you found?" she cried. "It is a pity you did not tell me the truth in the first instance instead of deceiving me," he retorted harshly. "Listen to me. Does any one at the inn know of your visit to me to-day? I do not suppose they do, but I want to make sure." "Nobody. I told them I was going to Leyland to see the dressmaker." "So much the better." Colwyn looked at his watch. "You have just time to catch the half-past one train back. You had better go at once. I will go to the inn some time this evening, but you must not let any one know that I am coming, or that you have seen me to-day. Do you understand? Can I depend on you?" "Yes," she replied. "I will do anything you tell me. But, oh, do tell me before I go whether you are going to save him." "I cannot say that," he replied, in a gentler voice. "But I am going to try to help him. Go at once, or you will not catch the train." CHAPTER XIX