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 gaze, and for a moment a startled expression passed over the man's face.

"So Mrs. Burbank has gone to her aunt's?" he said deliberately.

"That's what she said, sir."

"Do you believe it?"

The butler shifted his feet uneasily. "It's hardly for me to say, sir."

"See here!" Astro rose and took the fellow by the lapel of his coat. "You're quite right, my man. It isn't for you to suspect anything, of course. But if I know anything about human nature, you are devoted to the major, and you're to be trusted. Now see here! I'm here to help him in this matter; but anything I find out from you shall go no further. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," the butler replied uneasily. "The major said I was to obey your instructions to the letter, sir."

"There is one thing that I want to know, my man, and that is, did Mrs. Burbank write to Colonel Trevellian before or since she went away?"

"I can't say, sir, as to that."

The Seer still looked at the man searchingly, as if sending his will and thought through his eyes to fascinate and charm. The man's attitude, as he watched Astro, changed subtly from suspicion to confidence. Gradually he lost the conventional stolidity of the servant and became more human.

"All I want to see is the envelope of that letter," Astro said, watching his man.

The butler hesitated. "I might possibly find out from the colonel's man, sir. I'm well acquainted with him, and I've done him favors in times past."