Phineas Duge, fully dressed, was entering some figures in a small memorandum book on the table before him.
"Mr.Duge," the young man exclaimed, "forgive me for disturbing you, but I think that if you feel strong enough you ought to come downstairs into the library at once." Phineas Duge did not hesitate.

There was a light in his eyes which transformed his face.

He knew as though by inspiration something of what had happened.

He took the back stairs, and descending at a pace quite extraordinary for a sick man, he was inside the library in less than a minute.

It was easy to see that Smedley's alarm had not been altogether ill-founded.