The twins dragged the newcomer into their own den, and shut the door upon him.

There Desmond gave him a breathless survey of the situation, while Pamela sat on a stool at his feet, and put in explanatory words at intervals.

Their father's extraordinary preparations for waging war against the County Committee; his violence on the subject of the Chicksands; Beryl's despairing letters to Pamela; a letter from Arthur Chicksands to Desmond,--all these various items were poured out on the newcomer, with an eagerness and heat which showed the extreme interest which the twins took in the situation.
Meanwhile Aubrey Mannering sat listening almost in silence.

He was a delicately built, distinguished-looking man, who carried a large scar on his forehead, and had lost a finger of the left hand.

The ribbons on his breast showed that he was both an M.C.and a D.S.O .-- distinctions won at the second battle of Ypres and on the Somme.