"Why, Eric--you?" I gasped. "What has happened?"
He placed his forefinger to his lips, indicative of silence, and glanced
behind me along the hall to the room wherein Budd had disappeared.
Then, when I had passed into my own cosy den, he closed the door
carefully.
"Yes," he said, in a low, strained voice, "something has happened, old
fellow--something serious. I've discovered a fact that puts an entirely
new complexion upon the affair. You are both in gravest peril. Listen,
and I'll explain."