"Where have you been all this time, Solomon?" asked Boundary genially. "Sit you down and play a hand."
"You know why I've come," breathed Solomon White.
"Surely I know why you've come. You've come to explain where you've been, old boy. Sit down," said Boundary.
"Where is my daughter?" asked White.
"Where is your daughter?" repeated the colonel. "Well, that's a queer question to ask us. We've been saying where is Solomon White all this time."
"I've been to Brighton," said the man, "but that's nothing to do with it."
"Been at Brighton? A very pleasant place, too," said Boundary. "And what were you doing at Brighton?"
"Keeping out of your way, damn you!" said White fiercely. "Trying to cure the fear of you which has made a rank coward of me. If you wanted to find a method for curing me, colonel, you've found it. I've come back for my daughter—where is she?"
The colonel pushed his chair back from the table and looked up with a quizzical smile.
"Now you're not going to take it hard, Solomon," he said. "We had to have you back and that was the only scheme we could think of. You see, there are lots of little bits of business that have to be cleared up, bits of business in which you had a hand the same as my other business associates."