After some delay, Jason's voice answered him.
"Jason," said Jimmie Dale, in matter-of-fact tones, "I shall be out of the city for another three or four days, possibly a week, and--" he stopped abruptly, as a sort of gasp came to him over the wire.
"Thank God that's you, sir!" exclaimed the old butler wildly.

"I've been near mad, sir, all day!" "Don't get excited, Jason!" said Jimmie Dale a little sharply.

"The mere matter of my absence for the last two days is nothing to cause you any concern.

And while I am on the subject, Jason, let me say now that I shall be glad if you will bear that fact in mind in future." "Yes, sir," stammered Jason.

"But, sir, it ain't that--good Lord, Master Jim, it ain't that, sir! It's--it's one of them letters." Something like a galvanic shock seemed to jerk the disreputable, loose-jointed frame of Larry the Bat suddenly erect--and a strained whiteness crept over the dirty, unwashed face.
"Go on, Jason," said Jimmie Dale, without a quiver in his voice.
"It came this morning, sir--that shuffer with his automobile left it.
I had just time to say you weren't at home, sir, and he was gone.