“Perhaps I can help you,” the man suggested.

“I—I don’t think so,” said Barbara. “I just wanted——” She couldn’t go on.

“I might be able to get in touch with Mr. Higginbottom, if it’s really urgent,” said Rollison.

He sounded friendly and anxious to help, and she couldn’t stop herself from bursting out:

“Oh, it is!”

Then give me your name and telephone number,” said Rollison. “You would like to see him to-night, I imagine?”

“Oh, yes, please.” She gave him the details. “It doesn’t matter how late it is, I shan’t be able to rest until I’ve seen him.”

“If I were you, I’d try,” advised Rollison.

She rang off, and smiling wanly at the recollection of his advice, went into the bedroom, kicked off her shoes, and lay down. The man had sounded so calm and reassuring that she began to wonder if she were making too much fuss. Bob might return soon. It wasn’t yet late; not really late.

Richard Rollison stood up from his desk in his large study-cum-sitting-room, and, without looking at the papers which he had been reading, went into the hall.

This was quite roomy and furnished sparsely, although a connoisseur would have appreciated the old oak settle with a swing seat, and the near-black wardrobe, the small but exquisite water-colours on the walls. A thick-pile brown carpet covered the floor. A short passage led off the hall to his man’s room, the kitchen and the bath-room. The main rooms all led from the hall.

He called out: “Asleep yet, Jolly?” and his man answered in a sleepy voice: “No, sir, not at all.” Rollison smothered a grin and opened the door.

By day, Jolly always dressed in black. By night, his colour scheme was much more gay, and he wore bright yellow pyjamas which were somewhat unexpected in a room which was obviously a man’s. It was rather crowded, with good but not antique furniture, and one wall was lined with books.

The light from a bedside lamp reflected from the yellow garments and gave his lined face, with its dewlaps, a look of yellow jaundice. He had been reading, in bed, and struggled to sit up while retaining hold on his book.