hould say Mrs. Richford, a terrible thing has
happened, a strange, weird thing. As you know, the inquest was to have
been to-day. Events have rendered that utterly impossible. Please be
brave."

"You will not have to complain of me on that score," Beatrice whispered.

"Then it is this. By some strange means, certain people entered Sir
Charles's room last night and carried him away. It is amazing, but the
body of Sir Charles has disappeared!"

CHAPTER XI

Beatrice reached out a hand and steadied herself against a chair. Just
for a moment the whole world seemed to be spinning around her. Brave and
courageous as she was, these shocks, coming one after the other, had
been too much for her. When she opened her eyes again she found that
Mark Ventmore was standing by her side.

"Courage, darling," he whispered. "We seem to have come to the worst of
everything. Whatever may be the result and meaning of this dastardly
outrage, nothing can hurt your father."

The colour was slowly coming back into the girl's pallid lips. With an
effort she struggled for the possession of herself. She was alone in the
world, she had a position that would cause most of her women friends to
turn coldly from her, but Mark remained. And there was always the
feeling that she had nothing further to fear from Stephen Richford.

"I can bear it all now," she said. "Tell me everything, please."

"Up to the present there is very little to say," Inspector Field
observed. "I came here a little before ten this morning to open Sir
Charles's bedroom so as to be prepared for the visit of the jury and the
coroner. After the decision arrived at by both doctors, of course the
inquest to-day would have been quite formal. It would have been deferred
for a few days pending the _post-mortem_ examination. I am putting it
as delicately as possible."

"Oh, I know, I know," Beatrice said with a shudder. "Only it is a
dreadful thing for a daughter to listen to. Will you go on, please?"

"In the course of my duty I have to see that the seals have not been
tampered with. Of course in a large hotel like this, where guests are in
the corridor all day and night, I never for a moment anticipated
anything wrong. Still, I examined the seals carefully and they appeared
to me to be absolutely intact. With my sergeant we broke the seals and
entered the room, the door of which was locked. Imagine our astonishment
when we found that the body of the poor gentleman had va