“Leave us, if you please, Mrs. Malony,” he ordered.  “I’ll ring when I’m ready.”

Mrs. Malony hesitated with the door-knob in her hand.

“I’m not wishing to say anything that might sound offensive,” she observed slowly, “but if it’s a case of trouble of any sort with the police, Mr. Craig—­”

“That will do,” Craig interrupted.  “It isn’t anything of the sort you think.  You are not likely to suffer by having me here, Mrs. Malony, or by looking after my niece when I have gone.”

The landlady left the room silently.  The girl came over to her uncle and threw her arm around his neck.

“Please don’t talk about going away, uncle,” she pleaded.  “I have been so happy since I have been with you.”

He patted her head, felt in his pocket, and drew out a little paper bag, from which he shook a bunch of violets.  The girl pinned them to her frock with a little cry of pleasure.

“How kind you are to me!” she exclaimed.  “You think of everything!”

He sighed.

“If I had had you for a little longer, Mary,” he said, “perhaps I should have been a better man.  Go to the window, please, and tell me if that man is still there.”

She crossed the room with light footsteps.  Presently she returned.

“He is just crossing the street,” she announced.  “I think that he seems to be coming here.”

Craig took the girl for a minute into his arms.

“Good-bye, dear,” he said.  “I want you to take this paper and keep it carefully.  You will be cared for always, but I must go.”

“But where must you go?” she asked bewildered.

“I have an appointment at Professor Ashleigh’s,” he told her.  “I cannot tell you anything more than that.  Good-bye!”

He kissed her for a moment passionately.  Then suddenly he tore himself away.  She heard him run lightly down the stairs.  Some instinct led her to the back window.  She saw him emerge from the house and pass down the yard.  Then she went to the front.  The man in the blue serge suit was talking to the landlady below.  She sank into a chair, puzzled and unhappy.  Then she heard heavy footsteps.  The door was opened.  The man in the blue serge suit entered, followed by the protesting landlady.

“There’s no sense in coming here to worry the young lady,” Mrs. Malony declared irritably.  “As for Mr. Craig, I told you that he’d gone out.”

“Gone out, eh?” the man repeated, speaking in a thick, disagreeable tone.  “Why, I watched him in here not ten minutes ago.  Now then, young lady, guess you’d better cough up the truth.  Where’s this precious uncle of yours?”

“My uncle has gone out,” the girl replied, drawing herself up.  “He left five minutes ago.”

“Sneaked out by the back way, maybe,” the man sneered.

“If there was any fear of your stopping to speak to him, I should think he would,” the girl retorted boldly.  “My uncle is rather particular about his acquaintances.”