you seriously mean that
you've had one purporting to come from me?"

Laverick pulled himself together.

"Well, the signature's such a scrawl," he said, "that no one could
tell what the name really was. I guessed at you but I seem to have
guessed wrong. Good-bye!"

He set down the receiver and rang off to escape further questioning.
Now indeed the plot was commencing to thicken. This was a deliberate
effort on the part of some one to secure his absence from his offices
at a quarter to one.

With the document in his pocket and the safe securely locked,
Laverick felt at ease as to the result of any attempted burglary of
his premises. At the same time his curiosity was excited. Here,
perhaps, was a chance of finding some clue to this impenetrable
mystery.

There were thee clerks in the outer office. He put on his hat and
despatched two of them on errands in different directions. The last
he was obliged to take into his confidence.

"Halsey," he said, "I am going out to lunch. At least, I wish it
to be thought that I am going out to lunch. As a matter of fact, I
shall return in about ten minutes by the back way. I do not wish
you, however, to know this. I want you to have it in your mind
that I have gone to lunch and shall not be back until a quarter past
two. If there are visitors for me--Inquirers of any sort--act
exactly as you would have done if you really believed that I was
not in the building."

Halsey appeared a good deal mystified. Laverick took him even
further into his confidence.

"To tell you the truth, Halsey," he said, "I have just received a
bogus letter from Mr. Henshaw, asking me to lunch with him. Some
one was evidently anxious to get me out of my office for an hour
or so. I want to find out for myself what this means, if possible.
You understand?"

"I think so, sir," the man replied doubtfully. "I am not to be
aware that you have returned, then?"

"Certainly not," Laverick answered. "Please be quite clear about
that. If you hear any commotion in the office, you can come in,
but do not send for the police unless I tell you to. I wish to
look into this affair for myself."

Halsey, who had started life as a lawyer's clerk, and was distinctly
formal in his ideas, was a little shocked.

"Would it not be better, sir," he suggested, "for me to communicate
with the police in the first case? If this should really turn out
to be an attempt at burglary, it would surely be best t