It seemed to Laverick that from his hiding-place he could hear the little oath of disappointment which broke from the thin red lips.

The man replaced the notes and, with the pocket-book in his hand, hesitated.
Laverick, who thought that things had gone far enough, stepped lightly out from his hiding-place and stood between his unbidden visitor and the door.
"You had better put down that pocket-book," he ordered quietly.
The man was upon him with a single spring, but Laverick, without the slightest hesitation, knocked him prone upon the floor, where he lay, for a moment, motionless.

Then he slowly picked himself up.
His spectacles were broken--he blinked as he stood there.
"Sorry to be so rough," Laverick said.

"Perhaps if you will kindly realize that of the two I am much the stronger man, you will be so good as to sit in that chair and tell me the meaning of your intrusion." The man obeyed.

He covered his eyes with his hand, for a moment, as though in pain.
"I imagine," he said--and it seemed to Laverick that his voice had a slight foreign accent--"I imagine that the motive for my paying you this visit is fairly clear to you.