“If you be the Duke of Tynemouth, I’ve brought you two letters.”

The way he spoke rather than what he said made the Duke certain that this in some way concerned Honora.

Without saying anything he took the letters James was holding and, moving a little way into the hall where the chandelier afforded him more light, he opened one of them.

He saw it was from Honora and, before he read it, he said sharply,

“Tell that man to wait!”

“You’d better come inside,” James said to him.

The man stepped back before he replied,

“I’ll be waitin’ out ’ere and if ’is Nibs don’t agree, I’ll be orf!”

The Duke ignored what he said and started reading slowly what Honora had written to him.

His lips tightened as he did so.

Then he opened the other letter, which was in a different handwriting.

It was, however, written on the same type of cheap paper as Honora’s but in an uneducated hand and there were several blots of ink on it.

He read,

“Come alone with the messenger. If you talks to the Police, you’ll never see your wife again.”

The Duke read it through and then said to James,

“Order my carriage and be quick about it! Tell the man who brought these letters to wait!”

James looked startled, then hurried to obey his orders.

The Duke did not stop to see that they were carried out, but went from the hall to his secretary’s room in another part of the house.

He knew there was always a certain amount of money kept in the house in case he needed it, but he doubted if there was as much as five hundred pounds.

Only as he reached the room and lit the candle on his secretary’s desk did he remember that as tomorrow was Friday the money for the wages would have been drawn from the bank.

The servants in the house were paid monthly, but the grooms and coachmen received their wages weekly.

As he found the key to the safe, he opened it and found as he expected that there was money for his own use in notes of large denominations.

The wages for the outside staff had already been put neatly in piles ready for distribution the following day.

He counted them quickly and put them into a large envelope.

Together with the notes he always carried in his pocket and which were put there by his valet whatever he was wearing he had just a little over five hundred pounds.

He closed the safe, blew out the candle and walked back to the hall.

He saw as he reached it that James had invited the messenger inside and he was standing against the door.

The Duke wondered if he had taken the opportunity to steal anything and then decided that would not be likely when the sum of five hundred pounds was to be handed over to him or his confederates.

“Who are you?” he asked.