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258 studied them more," said Sir Eustace sadly. "I wonder if Pagett would have known that?"

Harry rapped sharply on the table.

"Don't play the fool. If it weren't for your grey hairs, I'd throw you out of the window. You damned scoundrel! Grey hairs, or no grey hairs, I"

He advanced a step or two, and Sir Eustace skipped nimbly behind the table.

"The young are always so violent," he said reproachfully. "Unable to use their brains, they rely solely on their muscles. Let us talk sense. For the moment you have the upper hand. But that state of affairs cannot continue. The house is full of my men. You are hopelessly outnumbered. Your momentary ascendency has been gained by an accident"

"Has it?"

Something in Harry's voice, a grim raillery, seemed to attract Sir Eustace's attention. He stared at him.

"Has it?" said Harry again. "Sit down, Sir Eustace, and listen to what I have to say." Still covering him with the revolver, he went on: "The cards are against you this time. To begin with, listen to that!"

That was a dull banging at the door below. There were shouts, oaths, and then a sound of firing. Sir Eustace paled.

"What's that?"

"Race—and his people. You didn't know, did you, Sir Eustace, that Anne had an arrangement with me by which we should know whether communications from one to the other were genuine? Telegrams were to be signed 'Andy,' letters were to have the word 'and' crossed out somewhere in them. Anne knew that your telegram was a fake. She came here of her own free will, walked deliberately into the snare, in the hope that she might catch you in your own trap. Before leaving Kimberley