“You’re murdering—­me!” he gasped.  “I’ve—­got—­a weak heart.”

Peter let go and flung him across the room.  He tottered toward the door.  And his servant, who had been breathlessly listening outside, opened it opportunely on the instant.  Logan saw his chance, as Sims meant him to do, half fell, half staggered out, and the door slammed in Peter’s face.

It took the latter no more than thirty seconds to wrench it open again and drag Sims, who was holding desperately to the knob, into the dining-room.  “Don’t hurt me, sir!” the man pleaded.  “I only did my duty.”

“Hurt you!” repeated Rolls with a laugh.  “Don’t be afraid.  Where’s the other coward?”

“If you are referring to Mr. Logan, sir,” Sims replied politely, “he is gone.  If you look for him, I think you will find he has quite gone.  I had the front door open, all ready, in case it should be needed.”

Peter reflected for an instant, and then shrugged his shoulders.

“Let him go!” he said.  “I’d as soon step twice on a toad that was hopping away as touch him again. Br-r! This place is sickening.  I’ll go, too—­but not after him.”

“Yes, sir, certainly,” returned Sims with alacrity, slinking along the hall to the vestibule.  “I’ll open the front door for you.  This,” he added with a certain emphasis “will be the fourth time I’ve done so to-night.  Once to let Mr. Logan in, once when the young ladies came, and—–­”

“Ah, there were two of them!” Rolls caught him up.

“Yes, sir.  And though I did my duty just now helping Mr. Logan—­if I may say it, sir, without offence—­helping him out of danger, I am ready to assist you, sir, by answering any questions you may wish to ask.  I do not consider my doing so disloyal to my employer.  My statements won’t hurt him, I assure you.  And if you would—­er—–­”

“Would ‘make it worth your while,’ I suppose you’re trying to get out,” Peter disgustedly prompted him.

“I have a wife to support, sir, and a child.  I keep them in the country, and it comes expensive.”

“Give me ten dollars’ worth of talk,” ordered Peter, “and I’ll believe as much as I choose.”

He was half ashamed of himself for stooping to bribe the fellow who perhaps, after all, was only trying to delay him.  Yet he might have something worth hearing.  He could not afford to lose a chance.

“Two young ladies came as far as the door, sir,” said Sims, pocketing the greenback, “but only one came into the house—­a tall, handsome young lady, different looking from most, with a thin yellowish silk cloak over a blue dress.  She walked right in, but when she found her friend was gone she seemed surprised, and the next thing she was in the boudoir telephoning.  Mr. Logan went in and she came out.  They had a little dispute, I think, and though he’d been expecting her to supper, he told me to get her out of the house as quick as I could.  I showed her through the basement, and