Mr. Temple Barholm sat at the table and drew pen and paper toward him. He looked excited; he looked more troubled than Pearson had seen him look before.
“The wire's from Sir Ormsby Galloway, Pearson,” he said.
“It's about Mr. Strangeways. He's done what I used to be always watching out against: he's disappeared.”
“Disappeared, sir!” cried Pearson, and almost dropped the Gladstone bag. “I beg pardon, sir. I know there's no time to lose.” He steadied the bag and went on with his task without even turning round.
His master was in some difficulty. He began to write, and after dashing off a few words, stopped, and tore them up.
“No,” he muttered, “that won't do. There's no time to explain.” Then he began again, but tore up his next lines also.
“That says too much and not enough. It'd frighten the life out of her.”
He wrote again, and ended by folding the sheet and putting it into an envelop.
“This is a message for Miss Alicia,” he said to Pearson. “Give it to her in the morning. I don't want her to worry because I had to go in a hurry. Tell her everything's going to be all right; but you needn't mention that anything's happened to Mr. Strangeways.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Pearson.