she. "He's travelling with some woman. Those men who are supposed to be
wrapped up in their scientific experiments--you can't trust them far!"

Then she added with a curious touch of conscious virtue: "But he'd no
right to get that woman to send a letter to _me_."

Larssen had noted the printed heading to the letter, "Hotel du Forum,
Arles," and he wired at once to Morris Sylvester to proceed to Arles and
hunt out further details. It seemed an unnecessary precaution, but the
shipowner never neglected the tiniest detail when he had a big scheme to
engineer.

His relief at the letter proved short-lived. Late that night came a
message from Sylvester:--

"Rivière not at Arles and not down with fever. Am following up further
clues. Will wire again in the morning."

Larssen did not show this wire to Olive. He had told her nothing of his
search for Rivière--had not even appeared specially interested in him.
But in point of fact his interest in the mysterious half-brother of the
dead man was steadily growing with every fresh check to the search. The
intuition on which he placed such firm faith told him insistently that
John Rivière was a factor vital to the fulfilment of his ambitions.

All the morning he looked for the telegram his secretary was to send
him. It came in the early afternoon:--

"Have found Rivière under extraordinary circumstances. Letter and
photograph follow."