CHAYNE RETURNS "Hullo," cried Captain Barstow, as he wandered round the library after luncheon.

"Here's a scatter-gun." He took the gun from a corner where it stood against the wall, opened the breech, shut it again, and turning to the open window lifted the stock to his shoulder.
"I wonder whether I could hit anything nowadays," he said, taking careful aim at a tulip in the garden.

"Any cartridges, Skinner ?" "I don't know, I am sure," Garratt Skinner replied, testily.

The newspapers had only this moment been brought into the room, and he did not wish to be disturbed.

Sylvia had never noticed that double-barreled gun before; and she wondered whether it had been brought into the room that morning.