pered.

"I want to ring up London on the telephone," he replied. "I know that
there is a detective either in the neighbourhood or on his way here, but
I shall tell my friend that he had better come down himself."

She nodded.

"I am going to release Esther," she said. "She is locked in her room.
The telephone is in the study. I will come down there to you."

She passed silently up the broad staircase. Hamel groped his way across
the hail into the library. He turned on the small electric reading-lamp
and drew up a chair to the side of the telephone. Even as he lifted the
receiver to his ear, he looked around him half apprehensively. It seemed
as though every moment he would hear the click of Mr. Fentolin's chair.

He got the exchange at Norwich without difficulty, and a few minutes
later a sleepy reply came from the number he had rung up in London. It
was Kinsley's servant who answered.

"I want to speak to Mr. Kinsley at once upon most important business,"
Hamel announced.

"Very sorry, sir," the man repelled. "Mr. Kinsley left town last night
for the country."

"Where has he gone?" Hamel demanded quickly. "You can tell me. You know
who I am; I am Mr. Hamel."

"Into Norfolk somewhere, sir. He went with several other gentlemen."

"Is that Bullen?" Hamel asked.

The man admitted the fact.

"Can you tell me if any of the people with whom Mr. Kinsley left London
were connected with the police?" he inquired.

The man hesitated.

"I believe so, sir," he admitted. "The gentlemen started in a motor-car
and were going to drive all night."

Hamel laid down the receiver. At any rate, he would not be left long
with this responsibility upon him. He walked out into the hall. The
house was still wrapped in deep silence. Then, from somewhere above him,
coming down the stairs, he heard the rustle of a woman's gown. He looked
up, and saw Miss Price, fully dressed, coming slowly towards him.
She held up her finger and led the way back into the library. She was
dressed as neatly as ever, but there was a queer light in her eyes.

"I have seen Mrs. Seymour Fentolin," she said. "She tells me that you
have left Mr. Fentolin and the others in the subterranean room of the
Tower."

Hamel nodded.

"They have Dunster down there," he told her. "I followed them in; it
seemed the best thing to do. I have a friend from London who is on his
way down here now with some detective officers, to enquire into the
matter of Dunster's di