lainly.
You may not know everything, but you can guess a great deal. Otherwise,
why did you try and see Sir Charles Darryll the night before his death,
why did you write him the note that was found in his bedroom? And
again, why did you stay in the hotel that night and try to warn the
servants on night duty? You see, Mary, it is quite useless to try to
keep the secret from me."

Mary Sartoris looked at the speaker with dilated eyes. For a moment she
could not speak. And yet there were no signs of guilty terror on her
face.

"I did not imagine that you knew so much," she said.

"I know more, but I would far rather know a great deal more," Berrington
admitted. "Mind you, matters are out of my hands and the police are hot
on the track. Why do you not confess everything and save yourself, Mary?
For instance, you stand a chance of being placed in the dock on a charge
of being concerned in the disappearance of Sir Charles Darryll's body."

"I am as innocent of that as the grave, Phil. I only did my best to try
to prevent----"

"Oh, I know, I know," Berrington said impatiently. "But the fact remains
that the body of Sir Charles Darryll was stolen for some vile purpose,
and that the culprits are in grave danger. Your brother is at the bottom
of this affair; he it was who drove up to the _Royal Palace Hotel_ in
that black hansom that took the body away. And yet you say that that
man----"

"Is more sinned against than sinning," Mary Sartoris cried. "I say it
still. Of course you regard me as blind and foolish, but then you do not
know everything."

"It is not a matter of what I know," Berrington protested. "Of course I
should believe every word that you tell me. But the police will take
another view of the matter altogether. Do you know what is going on
behind that closed door yonder?"

The girl shuddered and hid her face in her hands. She seemed afraid to
say anything. Berrington asked the question twice before he could get
any reply.

"Indeed I don't," she said. "I am not altogether in my brother's
confidence. I ventured to say something to him to-day and he was
dreadfully angry. He locked me in my bedroom, but I managed to get the
door of the dressing-room open and escaped that way. I was going to
interfere when I saw you. There seem to be other people there."

"Oh, there are," Berrington said bitterly. "There are two adventurers,
called Reggie and Cora, who very recently passed at the _Royal Palace
Hotel_ for Ge