CHAPTER V.
When Dr.Teackle shut the door of the ballroom upon himself and Mark Gilbert the two did not tarry long in the colonel's den, which was still occupied by half a dozen of the older men, who were being beguiled by a relay of hot terrapin that Alec had just served.

On the contrary, they continued on past the serving tables, past old Cobden Dorsey, who was steeped to the eyes in Santa Cruz rum punch; past John Purviance, and Gatchell and Murdoch, smacking their lips over the colonel's Madeira, dived through a door leading first to a dark passage, mounted to a short flight of steps leading to another dark passage, and so on through a second door until they reached a small room level with the ground.

This was the colonel's business office, where he conducted the affairs of the estate--a room remote from the great house and never entered except on the colonel's special invitation and only then when business of importance necessitated its use.
That business of the very highest importance--not in any way connected with the colonel, though of the very gravest moment--was being enacted here to-night, could be seen the instant Teackle, with Gilbert at his heels, threw open the door.

St.George and Harry were in one corner--Harry backed against the wall.

The boy was pale, but perfectly calm and silent.