Beaumanoir was dealing with a tangible foe at last, and with a thrill of racial pride Sybil noted the light of battle in her relative's eye. It was, therefore, more than a shock to her when the Duke, having relieved the tweed-coated lurker of his weapon, calmly added:
"Now, sir, if you will be good enough to march in front of me down to the front door, I will let you out. You two," he continued, addressing Sybil and Forsyth in the same quiet tones, "will greatly oblige me by not raising any alarm or disturbing the servants while I am gone."
"I am coming downstairs with you," said Forsyth, drily.
When the procession of three, led by the stranger with a brace of pistols at his head, had filed off to the grand staircase, Sybil ran back to her room and fetched her candle. An inspection of the Duke's door showed that a panel had been partially cut out with a watch-spring saw, which was still sticking in the almost invisible fissure.
[CHAPTER IX—The Strategy of the General]
Some five hours later General Sadgrove, at his house in Grosvenor Gardens, was taking his morning tub, when a servant tapped at the door of the bathroom and informed him that Mr. Alec Forsyth wanted to see him very urgently. The General as speedily as possible donned his dressing-gown and descended to his sanctum. His keen eyes just glanced at the troubled face of the young man standing on the hearth-rug; then, in his laconic way, he asked:
"What's wrong, laddie? Your chum Beaumanoir been in the wars?"
Forsyth favored him with a startled stare, and then broke into an uneasy laugh.
"You seem to have been exercising your faculty of second-sight already, Uncle Jem," he said.
"The man was being stalked," said the General. "Has anyone caught him?"