start, Mike!"

"In about half-an-hour."

"Just nice time for a snack--oysters and stout for you, my darling?"
said jovial Neddy. Then--with a change of voice--"Just as well that
didn't pass us!"

For the sound of a car came from the road they had just left. It was
going in the direction of the Cottage and of Inkston. Captain Alec
was taking his betrothed home after a joyful evening of
congratulation and welcome.




CHAPTER XII

THE SECRET OF THE TOWER


The scene presented by the interior of the Tower, when Beaumaroy softly
opened the door and signed to Doctor Mary to step forward and look, was
indeed a strange one, a ridiculous yet pathetic mockery of grandeur.

The building was a circular one, rising to a height of some thirty-five
feet and having a diameter of about ten. Up to about twelve feet from the
floor its walls were draped with red and purple stuffs of coarse
material; above them the bare bricks and the rafters of the roof showed
naked. In the middle of the floor, with their backs to the door at which