"Why didn't I go with them!" As though the gods heard his plaint and meant to crush him with their answer, the telephone bell sounded at his elbow.

Mechanically, he lifted the receiver off its hook, and immediately became aware of Tomlinson's voice, with some element of flurry and distress in its unctuous accents.
"That you, Mr.Theydon ?" said the butler.
"Yes." "Have you had any news of Mr.Forbes, sir ?" "Yes.

He has just left me." "Ah, if only I had known, and had given you a call before ringing up the city!" "What is it?
Can I do anything ?" "It's Miss Evelyn, sir." "Yes, what of her ?" "She's gone, sir." Theydon's heart apparently stopped for a second, and then raced madly into tumultuous action again.
"Gone! Good Lord, man, what do you mean ?" he almost groaned.
"A telegram came from Mrs.Forbes, at Eastbourne, saying she was ill and wanted Miss Evelyn.

I tried all I knew to persuade Miss Evelyn to wait until she had spoken to her father, but she wouldn't listen--she just threw on a hat and a wrap, and took a taxi to Victoria." Some membrane or film of tissue which might have served hitherto to shut off from Frank Theydon's cheery temperament any real knowledge of the pitfalls which may beset the path of the unwary seemed in that instant to shrivel as though it had been devoured by flame.
He knew, how or why he could never tell, that the girl had been drawn into the plot which had already claimed so many victims and sought so many more.

All doubt vanished.