‘You did well,’ he said.  ’Some electric disturbance has cut us off from our London correspondent.  We sent messages in the usual way, but there has been no reply.  You sent to Scotland Yard for detectives, I think you said?’

‘I did.’

‘But, unluckily, what can London detectives do in a country like this?’ said Mr. Macrae.

‘I told them to send one who had the Gaelic,’ said Bude.

‘It was well thought of,’ said Mr. Macrae, ’but this was no local job.  Every man for miles round has been examined, and accounted for.’

‘I hope you have slept well, Mr. Merton?’ he asked.

’Excellently.  Can you not put me on some work if it is only to copy telegraphic despatches?  But, by the way, how is Blake?’

‘The doctor is still with him,’ said Mr. Macrae; ’a case of concussion of the brain, he says it is.  But you go out and take the air, you must be careful of yourself.’

Bude remained with the millionaire, Merton sauntered out to look at the river:  running water drew him like a magnet.  By the side of the stream, on a woodland path, he met Lady Bude.  She took his hand silently in her right, and patted it with her left.  Merton turned his head away.

‘What can I say to you?’ she asked.  ’Oh, this is too horrible, too cruel.’

’If I had listened to you and not irritated her I might have been with her, not Blake,’ said Merton, with keen self-respect.

’I don’t quite see that you would be any the better for concussion of the brain,’ said Lady Bude, smiling.  ’Oh, Mr. Merton, you must find her, I know how you have worked already.  You must rescue her.  Consider, this is your chance, this is your opportunity to do something great.  Take courage!’

Merton answered, with a rather watery smile, ‘If I had Logan with me.’

‘With or without Lord Fastcastle, you must do it!’ said Lady Bude.

They saw Mr. Macrae approaching them deep in thought and advanced to meet him.

‘Mr. Macrae,’ asked Lady Bude suddenly, ’have you had Donald with you long?’

‘Ever since he was a lad in Canada,’ answered the millionaire.  ’I have every confidence in Donald’s ability, and he was for half a year with Gianesi and Giambresi, learning to work their system.’

Donald’s honesty, it was clear, he never dreamed of suspecting.  Merton blushed, as he remembered that a doubt as to whether the engineer had been ‘got at’ had occurred to his own mind.  For a heavy bribe (Merton had fancied) Donald might have been induced, perhaps by some Stock Exchange operator, to tamper with the wireless centre of communication.  But, from Mr. Macrae’s perfect confidence, he felt obliged to drop this attractive hypothesis.