He had come to the flat beside himself with anxiety at the disappearance of Odette Rider.

He had intended dashing into his rooms and out again, though what he intended doing thereafter he had no idea.

The knowledge that Ling Chu was on the track of the kidnapper had served as an opiate to his jagged nerves; otherwise he could not have stayed and listened to the statement Milburgh was preparing to make.
Now and again it came back to him, like a twinge of pain, that Odette Rider was in danger; and he wanted to have done with this business, to bundle Milburgh into a prison cell, and devote the whole of his energies to tracing her.

Such a twinge came to him now as he watched the stout figure at the table.
"Before you start," he said, "tell me this: What information did you give to Ling Chu which led him to leave you ?" "I told him about Miss Rider," said Milburgh, "and I advanced a theory--it was only a theory--as to what had happened to her." "I see," said Tarling.

"Now tell your story and tell it quickly, my friend, and try to keep to the truth.