Now scatter." It was well that they did, vacating the room more cheerfully and sympathetically than they had entered it, or Hall's manifest disturbance over Van Loo's visit would have been noticed.

When the last man had disappeared Hall turned quickly to Steptoe.

"Well, what did he say?
Where has he gone ?" "Don't know," said Steptoe, with uneasy curtness.

"He was running away with a woman--well, Mrs.Barker, if you want to know," he added, with rising anger, "the wife of one of those cursed partners.

Jack Hamlin was here, and was jockeying to stop him, and interfered.