The laugh had stopped and the whiteness returned as Lowndes sprang up and walked quickly round the desk to where Harry stood. He laid a hand on Harry's arm. The boy shook it off. And yet there was a kindness behind the other's glasses--the old kindness that had disconcerted Harry once already. "Consider what you are saying, Ringrose," said Lowndes quietly. "You're going on like a young madman. Pull yourself together and just consider. You talk of telling tales in a way that is neither nice nor wise. What do you know to tell?" This simple question was like ice on the hot young head. "Enough, at any rate," he stammered presently, "to put me on the track of more." "Then I advise you to find out the more before you make use of threats." "I intend to do so. I'll be at the bottom of your villainy yet!" Lowndes darkened. "Do you want to force me to have you turned out?" he asked fiercely. "Upon my word, Ringrose, you try the patience of the best friend you ever had. Didn't I stand by you when you landed? Didn't I do the best I could for you when I was on the rocks myself? Now I'm afloat again I want to stand by you still, but you make it devilish difficult. I honestly meant to make you Secretary of this Company, but when the chap who helped me to pull it through asked for the billet, what could I do? Here's an envelope that will show you I haven't forgotten you; take it, Ringrose, and look at it at your convenience, and try to think more charitably of an old friend. Recollect that I was your father's friend first." "So you say," said Harry, taking the long thick envelope and looking straight through the gold-rimmed glasses. "I will believe you when you tell me where he is." "I know no more than the man in the moon." "You were at the bottom of his disappearance!" "I give you my word that I was not." "You know whether he is dead or alive!" "I do not, Ringrose." "Then tell me where you saw him last!" "You sicken me," cried Lowndes, losing his temper suddenly. "I told you the whole story six months ago, and now you want me to tell it you again so that you may challenge every point. I'll answer no more of your insolent questions, and I'll tell the commissionaire to mark you down and never to admit you again. You hold in your hand fifty shares in this Company. Next week they will be worth a hundred pounds--next month perhaps a thousand--next year very likely five. Take them for your mother's sake, if not for your own, and for God's sake let me never see your face again!" "From the man who may be at the bottom of our disgrace? No, thank you--not until you tell me what you did with my father--you and Scrafton between you!" "I have already answered you." "Then so much for your fifty shares." The long envelope spun into the fire. Lowndes darted to his desk, caught the electric bell that dangled over it, and pressed the button. Harry stalked to the door, turned round, and faced him for the last time.