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THE AUTHOR OF "TRIXIE"
when I open the parcel at the Sloane Street Safe Deposit."
He rose. "To-morrow," he said, "I shall write to the newspapers. I will give you, Bisham, twenty-four hours in which to make up your mind whether or no you are to stand by me. I cannot think that you will refuse."
He passed through the dining-room door.
"Twenty-four hours, eh?" said Chloë thoughtfully. "Well, twenty-four hours are always twenty-four hours."
"Yes," said Dunkle. "Always. But what's to be done? Has it got to be murder after all?"
"No," she replied. "Not that, Bish. It would mean my going into mourning just as I've laid in my whole spring wardrobe, and that I decline absolutely to do. We must think of something a trifle less drastic than doing the old gent in. Suppose
