at she had
some means of wiring intelligence to her brother--indeed, we now
know that to have been the case--how under God's heaven did she
obtain that intelligence?"

"Well, that's a facer, certainly, Sir Charles; but with such a
past-mistress of ingenuity as she--well, you never know. Sure she
couldn't possibly have managed to get into the room and hide herself
somewhere, you think?"

"I am positive she couldn't. The thing isn't possible. There's no
place where she _could_ have hidden. Come in and see."

He unlocked the door and, followed by the rest, led the way into the
room where the inquiry into the dockmaster's affairs had been held. A
glance about it was sufficient to corroborate Sir Charles's statement.

On one side stood a large fireproof safe, closely locked; on the
other were two windows--iron-grilled and with inside shutters of
steel; at one end was a large flat-topped table, at which Sir Charles
and MacInery had conducted their investigation of the books, et
cetera, and at the other a smaller writing-table, upon which stood a
typewriter set on a sound-deadening square of felt, and over which
hung a white-disked electric bulb. There were five chairs, and not
another mortal thing. No cupboard, no wardrobe, no chest--nothing
under heaven in which a creature any bigger than a cat could have
hidden.

"You see," said Sir Charles, with a wave of the hand, "she couldn't
have hidden in here, neither could she have hidden outside and
overheard, for nothing was said that could have been of any use
to her."

"Quite confident of that?"

"Oh, I can answer for that, Mr. Cleek," put in young Grimsdick. "We
were so careful upon that point that Sir Charles never dictated
even the smallest thing that he wanted recorded; merely passed over
the papers and said: 'Copy that where I have marked it'; and to
save my table from being overcrowded, I scratched down the marked
paragraphs in shorthand, and prepared to transcribe them on the
typewriter later. Why, sir, look here; the diabolical part of the
mystery is that those two fragments of sentences flashed out at the
telegraph office at the time of that frightful peal of thunder,
and at that very instant I was in the act of transcribing them on
the typewriter."

"Hello! Hello!" rapped out Cleek, twitching round sharply. "Sure of
that, are you--absolutely sure?"

"Beyond all question, Mr. Cleek. Sir Charles will tell you that
the thunder-clap was so violent and so sudd