know it all! You
are clever. You can pretend. You can explain you had no call. If you
refuse--"

Nicol Brinn nodded grimly. "I understand! But, good God! How has he
found out? How has he found out?"

"I don't know!" moaned Naida. "Oh, I am frightened--so frightened!"

A discreet rap sounded upon the door.

Nicol Brinn crossed and stood, hands clasped behind him, before the
mantelpiece. "In," he said.

Hoskins entered. "Detective Sergeant Stokes wishes to see you at once,
sir."

Brinn drew a watch from his waistcoat pocket. Attached to it was a fob
from which depended a little Chinese Buddha. He consulted the timepiece
and returned it to his pocket.

"Eight-twenty-five," he muttered, and glanced across to where
Naida, wide-eyed, watched him. "Admit Detective Sergeant Stokes at
eight-twenty-six, and then lock the door."

"Very good, sir."

Hoskins retired imperturbably.

CHAPTER XVI. NICOL BRINN GOES OUT

Detective Sergeant Stokes was a big, dark, florid man, the word
"constable" written all over him. Indeed, as Wessex had complained more
than once, the mere sound of Stokes's footsteps was a danger signal
for any crook. His respect for his immediate superior, the detective
inspector, was not great. The methods of Wessex savoured too much of the
French school to appeal to one of Stokes's temperament and outlook upon
life, especially upon that phase of life which comes within the province
of the criminal investigator.

Wessex's instructions with regard to Nicol Brinn had been succinct:
"Watch Mr. Brinn's chambers, make a note of all his visitors, but take
no definite steps respecting him personally without consulting me."

Armed with these instructions, the detective sergeant had undertaken
his duties, which had proved more or less tedious up to the time that
a fashionably attired woman of striking but unusual appearance had
inquired of the hall porter upon which floor Mr. Nicol Brinn resided.

In her manner the detective sergeant had perceived something furtive.
There was a hunted look in her eyes, too.

When, at the end of some fifteen or twenty minutes, she failed to
reappear, he determined to take the initiative himself. By intruding
upon this prolonged conference he hoped to learn something of value.
Truth to tell, he was no master of finesse, and had but recently been
promoted from an East End district where prompt physical action was of
more value than subtlety.

As a result, then, he prese