"Really, Davie," she said, "now that your cousin has come amongst us, you must remove your beard at once." "Why?" he asked. "Because you are so alike that some evening, in these dark corridors, I shall mistake Mr. Frazer for you." "That won't be half bad," laughed Robert. Nellie blushed, and endeavoured to evade the consequences of her own remark. "I meant," she exclaimed, "that you would be sure to laugh at me if I treated you as Davie." "Not at all. I would consider it a cousinly duty to make you believe I was David, and not myself." "Then," she cried, "I will guard against any possibility of error by treating both of you as Mr. Robert Hume-Frazer until I am quite sure." "Waiter!" said David, "where is the barber's shop?" Helen became redder than ever, but they enjoyed the joke at her expense. The waiter politely informed his questioner that the barber would not be on duty until the morning at 8 a.m. "Then book the first chair for me!" said David. "And the second for me!" joined in Robert. "Mr. Brett," said Margaret, "don't you consider this competition perfectly disgraceful?" "I am overjoyed," he replied. "It appears to me that the result must be personally most satisfactory." "In what way?" "It is obvious that you have no resource but to accept my willing slavery, Miss Layton having monopolised the attentions of your two cousins." "Hello!" cried Frazer. "This is an unexpected attack. Miss Layton, I resign. Have no fear. In the darkest corridor I will warn you that my name is 'Robert.'" Though the words were carelessly good-humoured, they were just a trifle emphatic. The incident passed, but they recalled it subsequently under very different circumstances. Brett went home about ten o'clock. Next day at noon he was arranging for the immediate delivery of a type-writer machine, sold by Mr. Numagawa Jiro to a West End exchange, when a telegram reached him: "Come at once. Urgent.--HUME." He drove to the hotel, where David and Helen were sitting in the foyer awaiting his arrival. Hume had kept his promise anent the barber. He no longer desired to alter his appearance in any way, and had only grown a beard on account of his sensitiveness regarding his two trials at the Assizes. But the fun of the affair had quite gone. Helen was pale, David greatly perturbed. "A terrible thing has happened," he said, in a low voice, when he grasped the barrister's hand. "Someone tried to kill Bob an hour ago." The blank amazement on Brett's face caused him to add hurriedly: "It is quite true. He had the narrowest escape. He is in bed now. The doctor is examining him. We have secured the next room to his, and Margaret is there with a nurse." The barrister made no reply, but accompanied them to Frazer's apartment. In the adjoining room they found Margaret, terribly scared, but listening eagerly to the doctor's cheery optimism.