"Really, Mr Shaw," I said, "your dark forebodings and your strange declarations puzzle me. True, I have endeavoured to serve your interests, and I regard you as a friend, heedless of what I cannot help suspecting. Yet you are never open and frank with me concerning one thing--your friendship with Melvill Arnold." He started at mention of the name--a fact which caused me to ponder. "I hardly follow you." "Well," I said. "Shortly before leaving England I received a visit from a certain Mrs Olliffe--a lady living near Bath. I believe you know her?" "Yes!" he gasped, grasping the edge of the table and half rising from his seat. "Then she has seen you!" he cried. "What did she tell you?" "Several things," I replied. "She alleges that you were not Arnold's friend--but his fiercest enemy." "She has told you that!" he cried bitterly. "And what else has that woman said against me?" "Nothing much." "Come," he exclaimed boldly. "Tell me, Kemball, man to man, all that woman has said." I saw that his manner had changed, his small eyes were flashing with fire, while upon his pale cheeks showed two scarlet patches. Through my brain surged recollections of the woman's allegations, but, seeing him in such anger, I did not desire to irritate him further, therefore I declared that whatever the lady had said was in no way derogatory to him. "You are not telling me the truth, Kemball," he declared, looking straight into my eyes. "I know her too well. She has lied to you about me." "Probably," was my reply. "I happen by a curious chance to know the character of the lady, and it is hardly such as would inspire me with confidence." "You know her then!" he exclaimed, staring at me hard. "I know that at one time she passed as Lady Lettice Lancaster, and was sentenced to penal servitude as an adventuress." "Who told you that? How do you know that?" he asked quickly. "It is surely common knowledge," was my reply. "Therefore please dismiss from your mind that anything she might say to your detriment would impair our friendship." "Ah yes!" he cried suddenly, taking my hand and wringing it warmly. "I know, Kemball, that you, being my friend, will refuse to be influenced in any way by evil report. That woman is, as you rightly say, an unscrupulous adventuress. I knew her once--before her conviction--but I have since lost sight of her. Yet, I know she is my enemy, and--well, if it were to her interest she would have no compunction in giving me away to Scotland Yard." "Then she is your enemy?" "My worst enemy." "Ah! Then I understand the reason of her allegations," I said, and a moment later the subject dropped. We returned to the hotel just before midnight, and I ascended in the lift to my room. Shaw shook my hand and turned into his own room.