"Yes. Hayhurst declares that she induced him to go home with her, that she pumped him, and then signalled to a man who must have been hiding on the stoep, and who sprang in through the window behind him and knocked him senseless with a blow over the head. When he came to himself he was lying in the gutter near his lodging and the papers were gone. My God!" wound up the speaker savagely, "to know that that young fool had in his possession what I've been months scheming to get hold of, and lets a woman Delilah him out of his prize! I could cheerfully have slain him when he brought the tale of his failure to me." "Lucky for him it was not to me he brought it," the other said grimly; "I should probably have done it. You don't reckon yourself over credulous, I suppose, in accepting his tale as it stands?" "No. I might have questioned it; but it seems probable enough in face of the fact that the fellow who holds the papers has been paying marked attention to Mrs Lawless for some time, and she certainly does not discourage him. Cape Town couples their names together, I believe. One can credit anything about a woman who will listen to the suit of a rogue like that,--a damned swindler, with a reputation for being bigamously married already in another country!" "His name?" the man with the scar asked sharply, leaning half-way across the table. "Van Bleit." Grit sat up. "God! man, I know him intimately. We were in Rhodesia together." He laughed harshly. "It is to him I owe the nickname that has stuck closer than my own. The former acquaintance may prove helpful." The Colonel peered at him closely. "You have just reminded me that the nickname is all I know you by," he said. "Simmonds could not recall your rightful title." "He is not singular in that respect," was the curt response. "My name is Lawless." The Colonel stared at him blankly, his jaw fallen. "Lawless!" he repeated, and for the life of him he could not prevent the sudden freeze in his manner. It even occurred to him at the moment that he was the victim of a trick. If so, he had walked into the trap fairly easily. "It is a somewhat uncommon name," he added. "Are you by any chance related to the lady of whom we have been speaking?" The man he addressed returned his suspicious scrutiny with careless indifference. "By marriage only," he answered briefly. The Colonel was only partially relieved. "I have confided in you so much, Mr Lawless," he said, "that you will readily understand how unwelcome this intelligence is. Had I known of the connection sooner I should have hesitated to speak so freely of a matter that is as a sacred trust to me--"