"City 8951. Police business! Urgent!"

One, two, three seconds elapsed, four, five, six.

"Hello!" came the voice of Innes.

"That you, Innes?" said Harley. And, interrupting the other's reply: "I
am by no means safe, Innes! I am in one of the tightest corners of my
life. Listen: Get Wessex! If he's off duty, get Burton. Tell him to
bring--"

Someone leaped in at the broken window behind the speaker. Resting the
telephone upon the table, where he had found it, Harley reached into his
hip pocket and snapped out his automatic.

Dimly he could hear Innes speaking. He half-turned, raised the pistol,
and knew a sudden intense pain at the back of his skull. A thousand
lights seemed suddenly to split the darkness. He felt himself sinking
into an apparently bottomless pit.

CHAPTER XX. CONFLICTING CLUBS

"Any news, Wessex?" asked Innes, eagerly, starting up from his chair as
the inspector entered the office.

Wessex shook his head, and sitting down took out and lighted a
cigarette.

"News of a sort," he replied, slowly, "but nothing of any value, I am
afraid. My assistant, Stokes, has distinguished himself."

"In what way?" asked Innes, dully, dropping back into his chair.

These were trying days for the indefatigable secretary. Believing that
some clue of importance might come to light at any hour of the day or
night he remained at the chambers in Chancery Lane, sleeping nightly in
the spare room.

"Well," continued the inspector, "I had detailed him to watch Nicol
Brinn, but my explicit instructions were that Nicol Brinn was not to be
molested in any way."

"What happened?"

"To-night Nicol Brinn had a visitor--possibly a valuable witness.
Stokes, like an idiot, allowed her to slip through his fingers and tried
to arrest Brinn!"

"What? Arrest him!" cried Innes.

"Precisely. But I rather fancy," added the inspector, grimly, "that
Mr. Stokes will think twice before taking leaps like that in the dark
again."

"You say he tried to arrest him. What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that Nicol Brinn, leaving Stokes locked in his chambers, went
out and has completely disappeared!"

"But the woman?"

"Ah, the woman! There's the rub. If he had lain low and followed the
woman, all might have been well. But who she was, where she came from,
and where she has gone, we have no idea."

"Nicol Brinn must have been desperate to adopt such measures?"

Detective Inspector Wessex nodded.

"I quite agree with