Under had indeed "done for himself," as Cornelius had phrased the possible result. Guy had a horror of drunkenness. He had required Under's services that evening, for he was expecting friends to drop in for a smoke and a chat and possibly a game of bridge. Some of the friends had been there when Under had been precipitated into the entrance hall on the opening of the door. Guy had felt no pity for the backslider. He saw that it was useless to remonstrate then. Under was hopelessly incapable of speech, or even of holding himself erect. With the aid of one of his friends Guy had carried the man to his room and laid him on his bed. He recognised that the valet had garbed himself in his (Guy's) clothes. He made up his mind to the course he should pursue, and carried it out without hesitation.

When Under, pale-faced and shaky, appeared the next morning, Guy said nothing until breakfast was served and cleared away. Then he told the man to pack up his clothes and depart. He would not listen to the excuses Under had ready. He felt that he had done the man more than justice when he had paid him a month's wages over and above that due to him, and he breathed more freely when the man had departed.

An hour later there came a ring at his bell. He answered the door personally. Cornelius Jessel stood there.

"Mr. Guy Hora, sir?" he asked deferentially.

"What is it?" asked Guy.

Jessel handed him a note. Guy recognised Lynton Hora's handwriting and tore open the envelope. "Dear Guy," he read, "I don't know whether you could do anything amongst any of your friends for the bearer of this missive. He isn't a very prepossessing-looking person, but I know him to be a capable valet, and he is quite sober. Of course he is stupid, but all servants are that or they wouldn't be servants. Some years ago he valeted me for a while, and, running up against him in the street the other day, he told me he was out of a berth, and I foolishly promised to see if I could find him one. If you can relieve me of the responsibility, do. When are you coming to see us again? It seems ages since you looked us up, and Myra is crying her eyes out in your absence. Yours, L. H."

That same evening, while Cornelius was sedately laying out Guy's evening clothes in readiness for his new employer's return to dress for dinner, Inspector Kenly was learning almost with dismay that his literary lodger had that day arrived home, packed his boxes in a hurry, paid a week's rent in lieu of notice, and departed without giving a hint as to the reason for his sudden departure, or whither he was bound.

CHAPTER XV
INSPECTOR KENLY FINDS A CLUE

Inspector Kenly had good cause for regretting the departure of the man whose arrival in his home had been the source of so much annoyance to him, for Cornelius Jessel had become possessed of professional interest to him. His enquiries into the leakage of information contained in the Foreign Office despatches had at last borne fruit. He had learned that Lynton Hora had been a large speculator for the fall which had taken place upon the publication of the stolen information, and that the Commandatore had netted at least one hundred thousand pounds as the result. It had been easy to identify the successful speculator with the pseudo-clergyman who had called upon Cornelius Jessel. The detective had counted a great deal upon obtaining useful information about Hora from his lodger.

But the part Hora played in the Stock Exchange panic was not the only item of information which had resulted from his investigations. He had found that a certain Guy Marven had also speculated successfully. The fact that the name was identical with that of the King's Messenger who had carried the de-coded despatch from London to Sandringham did not lead him to suspect that Captain Marven could be the culprit. To his mind the use of the name pointed in another direction altogether. "If the Captain had been in it," he argued, "he would have taken precious good care that his name would never have appeared. It looks as if whoever did the job has used Marven's name in order to throw suspicion upon him."