This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
210
THE SURAKARTA

"Mr. McAdams, is in the outer office?" he inquired briskly of the boy.

"Mr. McAdams and another gentleman," the boy replied.

"They came together?"

"No, sir—separately."

"Then show McAdams in," Hereford directed; and he had swiftly thrown open his desk when the detective entered.

Wade Hereford, on this morning, did not know what his own mood was, but only that it was one which he could not remember ever to have experienced before. The self-control which enabled him usually to force his thoughts into any direction necessary apparently had abandoned him since his interview with his ward the night before. Hereford since then had been continually accusing, denouncing her in his own mind, then—in