“If there was to be an interview between father and son, I might expect them in this room, for they were not likely to be so indiscreet as to carry on a conversation in the hall. Nor was I mistaken. In about a quarter of an hour I heard someone ascend the front steps, and Mr. Stavanger, who had been waiting in the hall until then, opened the door before his son had time either to ring the bell or to insert a latch key. “‘Keep yourself quiet,’ I heard him say in a low tone, ‘and go into the dining room. Make no noise, for your liberty is in danger.’ “Do you believe that, in cases of emergency, some of our faculties are strengthened to an enormous extent? I think that this must be so, and that I, for one, have been the subject of this phenomenon. Otherwise, how shall I account for being able to hear Mr. Stavanger’s words so distinctly? No doubt, the midnight quiet of the house and neighbourhood had something to do with it. Still, I shall always think that Providence thus showed its approval of my endeavours to save Harley Riddell from an unjust fate. “Hugh’s answer to his father’s injunction was an ejaculation of which I did not catch the import. But he was evidently sufficiently impressed by his manner to be obedient for once. I heard the door quietly fastened again, and then the two men came into the room in which I was playing the eavesdropper. Mr. Stavanger, after turning up the gas, which he had previously lighted, seated himself, and requested his son to do the same. “‘Now then,’ observed the latter, ‘I would like to know what all this mystery is about, and what you mean by insinuating that my liberty is in danger.’ “‘Have you no idea?’ questioned Mr. Stavanger. “‘Not the slightest.’ “‘Think again.’ “‘Why the deuce don’t you out with it? It isn’t likely that I know just what you are driving at, and if I did, I am not fool enough to take the initiative.’