oo late
as it is."

"Come along, your Grace--come along, you," said the inspector briskly.

The four of them hurried out of the office and down the steps of the
police-station. In the roadway stood a long grey racing-car, caked with
muds--grey mud, brown mud, red mud--from end to end. It looked as if it
had brought samples of the soil of France from many districts.

"Come along; I'll take you in the car. Your men can trot along beside
us," said the Duke to the inspector.

He slipped into the car, the inspector jumped in and took the seat
beside him, and they started. They went slowly, to allow the two
policemen to keep up with them. Indeed, the car could not have made any
great pace, for the tyre of the off hind-wheel was punctured and
deflated.

In three minutes they came to the Gournay-Martin house, a wide-fronted
mass of undistinguished masonry, in an undistinguished row of exactly
the same pattern. There were no signs that any one was living in it.
Blinds were drawn, shutters were up over all the windows, upper and
lower. No smoke came from any of its chimneys, though indeed it was
full early for that.

Pulling a bunch of keys from his pocket, the Duke ran up the steps. The
inspector followed him. The Duke looked at the bunch, picked out the
latch-key, and fitted it into the lock. It did not open it. He drew it
out and tried another key and another. The door remained locked.

"Let me, your Grace," said the inspector. "I'm more used to it. I shall
be quicker."

The Duke handed the keys to him, and, one after another, the inspector
fitted them into the lock. It was useless. None of them opened the door.

"They've given me the wrong keys," said the Duke, with some vexation.
"Or no--stay--I see what's happened. The keys have been changed."

"Changed?" said the inspector. "When? Where?"

"Last night at Charmerace," said the Duke. "M. Gournay-Martin declared
that he saw a burglar slip out of one of the windows of the hall of the
chateau, and we found the lock of the bureau in which the keys were
kept broken."

The inspector seized the knocker, and hammered on the door.

"Try that door there," he cried to his men, pointing to a side-door on
the right, the tradesmen's entrance, giving access to the back of the
house. It was locked. There came no sound of movement in the house in
answer to the inspector's knocking.

"Where's the concierge?" he said.

The Duke shrugged his shoulders. "There's a housekeeper,