"To-morrow, when I am found, the papers--those same papers that have boomed me, as they term it--will discover in my end a startling sensation. All sorts of ridiculous rumours will be afloat. Parliament will gossip when it meets; but in a week my very name will be forgotten. One memorial alone will remain of me, my name engraved upon the tablet in the house of the Royal Geographical Society as its gold-medallist. And nothing else--absolutely nothing." Again he paused. After a few minutes had passed he stretched out his trembling hand and took the glass. "What will the world say of me, I wonder?" he exclaimed in a hoarse tone. "Will they declare that I was a coward?" "Yes," came an answering voice, low, but quite distinct within the old brown room, "the world will surely say that Dudley Chisholm was a coward--_a coward_!" He sprang to his feet in alarm, dashing the glass down on the table, and, turning quickly to the spot whence the answer had come, found himself face to face with an intruder who had evidently been concealed behind the heavy curtains of dark red velvet before the window, and who had heard everything and witnessed all his agony. The figure was lithe and of middle stature--the figure of a woman in a plain dark dress standing back in the deep shadow. At the first moment he could not distinguish the features; but when he had rushed forward a few paces, fierce resentment in his heart because his actions had been overlooked, he suddenly became aware of the women's identity. It was Muriel Mortimer. Since he had locked the door behind him as soon as he had entered the room, she must have been concealed behind the heavy curtains which were drawn across the deep recess of the old diamond-paned window. "You!" he gasped, white-faced and haggard. "You! Miss Mortimer! To what cause, pray, do I owe this nocturnal visit to my study?" he demanded in a stern and angry voice. "The reason of my presence here was the wish to find a novel to read in bed, Mr. Chisholm," she answered with extraordinary firmness. "Its result has been to save you from an ignominious death." Erect, almost defiant, she stood before him. Her face in the heavy shadow was as pale as his own, for she perceived his desperate mood and recognised the improbability of being able to grapple with the situation. He intended to end his life, while she, on her part, was just as determined that he should live. "You have been in this room the whole time?" he demanded, speaking quite unceremoniously. "Yes." "You have heard my words, and witnessed all my actions?" "I have." "You know, then, that I intend to drink the contents of that glass and end my life?" he said, looking straight at her. "That was your intention, but it is my duty towards you, and towards humanity, to prevent such a catastrophe." "Then you really intend to prevent me?"