“I am to understand, then, that it was you who committed an unprovoked assault upon me—­who planned to have me waylaid in that dastardly fashion?”

“Do you think,” Ray asked quietly, “that I should be such a damned fool?”

“What am I to think, then, what am I to believe?” I asked, with a sudden anger.  “You found me starving, and you gave me employment, but ever since I started my work life has become a huge ugly riddle.  Are you my friend or my enemy?  I do not know.  There is a drama being played out before my very eyes.  The figures in it move about me continually, yet I alone am blindfolded.  I am trusted to almost an incredible extent.  Great issues are confided to me.  I have been given such a post as a man might work for a lifetime to secure.  Yet where a little confidence would give me zest for my work—­would take away this horrible sense of moving always in the darkness—­it is withheld from me.”

Ray smoked on in silence for several moments.

“Well,” he said, “I am not sure that you are altogether unreasonable.  But, on the other hand, you must not forget that there is method, and a good deal of it, in the very things of which you complain.  There are certain positions in which a man may find himself where a measure of ignorance is a blessed thing.  Believe me, that if you understood, your difficulties would increase instead of diminish.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“But between you and me at least, Colonel Ray,” I said, “there is a plain issue.  You can explain the events of last night to me.”

“I will do that,” he answered, “since you have asked it.  Briefly, then, I parted from you on the steps of my club at a few minutes past nine last night.”

“Yes!”

“I saw from the moment we appeared that you were being watched.  I saw the man who was loitering on the pavement lean over to hear the address you gave to the cabman, and you were scarcely away before he was following you.  But it was only just as he drove by, leaning a little forward in his hansom, that I saw his face.  I recognized him for one of that woman’s most dangerous confederates, and I knew then that some villainy was on foot.  To cut a long story short, I came down unobserved in your train, followed you to Braster Grange, and was only a yard or two behind when this fellow, who acts as the woman’s chauffeur, sprang out upon you.  I was unfortunately a little two quick to the rescue, and received a smash on the head from your stick.  Then you bolted, and I found myself engaged with a pair of them.  On the whole I think that they got the worst of it.”

“The other one—­was Lord Blenavon!” I exclaimed.

“It was.”

“Then he is concerned in the plots which are going on against us,” I continued.  “I felt certain of it.  What a blackguard!”

“For his sister’s sake,” Colonel Ray said softly, “I want to keep him out of it if I can.  Therefore I hit him a little harder than was necessary.  He should be hors de combat for some time.”