“Of course.  Everyone has left, now the host and hostess have slipped off without saying good-bye.  Scandalous affair, isn’t it?  But, my boy, you’ll remember that I always said I didn’t like those people.  There’s something mysterious about them, I feel certain.  That telegram gave them warning of the visit of the man Chater, depend upon it, and for some reason they’re afraid of him.  It would be interesting to know what transpired between the two men in the library.  And these are people who’ve been taken up by everybody—­mere adventurers, I should call them!” And old Sir George sniffed again at thought of such scandal happening in the neighborhood.  “If Gilrae must let Rannoch, then why in the name of Fortune doesn’t he let it to respectable folk and not to the first fellow who answers his advertisement in The Field? It’s simply disgraceful!”

“Certainly, it is a most extraordinary story,” I declared.  “Leithcourt evidently wished to escape from his visitor, and that’s why he drugged him.”

“Why he poisoned him, you mean.  Cowan says the fellow is poisoned, but that he’ll probably recover.  He is already conscious, I hear.”

I resolved to call on the doctor, who happened to be well known to me, and obtain further particulars.  Therefore at eleven o’clock I drove into Dumfries and entered his consulting-room.

He was a spare, short, fair man, a trifle bald, and when I was shown in he welcomed me warmly, speaking with his pronounced Galloway accent.

“Well, it is a very mysterious case, Mr. Gregg,” he said, after I had told him the object of my visit.  “The gentleman is still in the hospital, and I have to keep him very quiet.  He was poisoned without a doubt, and has had a very narrow escape of his life.  The police got wind of the affair, and Mackenzie called to question him.  But he refused to make any statement whatever, apparently treating the affair very lightly.  The police, however, are mystified as to the reason of Mr. Leithcourt’s sudden flight, and are anxious to get at the bottom of the curious affair.”

“Naturally.  And more especially after the tragedy up in Rannoch Wood a short time ago,” I said.

“That’s just it,” said the doctor, removing his pince-nez and rubbing them.  “Mackenzie seems to suspect some connection between Leithcourt’s sudden disappearance and that mysterious affair.  It seems very evident that the telegram was a warning to Leithcourt of the man Chater’s intention of calling, and that the last-named was shown in just at the moment when the fugitive was on the point of leaving.”

“Chater.”  I echoed.  “Do you know his Christian name?”

“Hylton Chater.  He is apparently a gentleman.  Curious that he will tell us nothing of the reason he called, and of the scene that occurred between them.”

Knowing all that I did, I was not surprised.  Leithcourt had undoubtedly taken him unawares, but knights of industry never betray each other.