the third Mrs. Ravengar and her consoler that they conducted their affair with praiseworthy attention to outward decency.  She went to America by one steamer, and purchased a divorce in Iowa for two hundred dollars.  He followed in the next steamer, and they were duly united in Minneapolis.  Meanwhile, the Ravengar household, left to the ungoverned passions of three males, became more and more impossible, and at length old Ravengar expired.  In his will he stated that it was only from a stern sense of justice that he divided his considerable fortune in equal shares between Louis and Owen.  Had he consulted his inclination, he would have left one shilling to Louis, and the remainder to Owen, who alone had been a true son to him.

It was a too talkative will.  Testators, like politicians, should never explain.

Louis, who got as a favour half the fortune of which the whole was, in his opinion, his by right, was naturally exasperated in the highest degree by the terms of the indiscreet testament, and on the day of the funeral he parted from the son of his step-mother, swearing, in a somewhat melodramatic manner, that he would be revenged.  Hugo was then twenty-one, and for twenty-five years he had waited in vain for symptoms of the revenge.

And now they met again, in the truest sense strangers.  And each had a reason for humouring the other, for each wanted to know what the other had to do with Camilla Payne.

‘So you’re determined, Louis,’ said Hugo lightly, ’to bring me to my knees about the transfer of my business to a limited company, eh?’

‘What on earth do you mean, man?’ asked Ravengar, whose voice was always gruff.

‘I refer to Polycarp’s visit yesterday.’

‘I know nothing of it,’ said Ravengar slowly, looking across the wilderness of roofs.

‘Then why are you here, Louis?  Is your revenge at last matured?’

Ravengar controlled himself, and glanced round as if for unseen aid in a forlorn enterprise.

‘Owen,’ he said, moved, ’I’m here because I need your help.  I won’t say anything about the past.  I know you were always good-natured.  And you’ve worn better than I have.  I need your help in a matter of supreme importance to me.  I became aware last night that you and your men were interested in the proceedings at Tudor’s flat.  I ran here, meaning to see you.  There was no one in the big circular room downstairs, and no one at the entrance.  Then I saw your servant coming, and I retreated through the door.  I wished my presence to be known only to you.  The door was locked on me.  I knocked in vain.  Then I stumbled up the stairs, and found myself out here.  I wanted to calm myself, and here I remained.  I knew your habit of coming up here at early morning.  That is the whole explanation of my presence.’

Hugo nodded.

‘I guessed as much,’ he said.  ’I will help you if I can.  But first tell me what happened in the flat last night after Miss Payne entered while you and Tudor were quarrelling.  She fired on you?’