A bit of a bounder, but no end of a good sort." The others were evidently impressed by this bold though desperate policy.

Maddox himself was inclined to think that it had saved the situation, but he was anxious to make sure.

Edging his chair by slow degrees, he turned discreetly round.

With the tail of his eye he could see "the man himself" standing at the far end of the room.

He saw too that his own effort, though supreme, had been unavailing.