o! Then you did leave it, eh?"

"Yes. It was thoughtless of me, of course; but I only ran down to
the foot of the staircase, when I remembered, and ran back in a
perfect panic. Still I had locked the door in going out even then
and the key was in my hand. It was still locked when I returned,
but in that one single minute the necklace had disappeared. I was
gratifying my woman's vanity by holding it up to my throat and
viewing myself in the glass just an instant before, and I remember
perfectly, laying it down on the velvet lining of its open case at
the time I recollected the matter which caused me to leave the room."

"May I ask what that matter was?"

"Yes. A service I had promised to perform for Miss Eastman."

"Miss Eastman? Who is she?"

"My son's fiancee. She and her father are visiting us at present.
Curzon met and became engaged to Miss Eastman on the occasion of her
last visit to England, and this time her father is accompanying her."

"Her last _visit?_ Then the lady and her father are not English?"

"Oh, dear, no--Americans. They came over less than a week ago.
Pardon? No, I do not at the moment recall the name of the vessel,
Mr. Cleek, but whichever one it was it seems to have been a very
ill-conditioned affair and gave them a very bad crossing, indeed.
That is why I had to render Miss Eastman the service of which I
spoke--the sudden recollection of which caused me to lay down the
necklace and hurry from the room. I had forgotten all about it until
I happened to see the roll of lint on my dressing-table."

"Lint, Lady Leake? What on earth had lint to do with the matter?"

"I had bought it for Miss Eastman when I was in town this morning.
She asked me to, as she had used her last clean bandage yesterday.
She had a very bad fall on shipboard, Mr. Cleek, and injured her left
hand severely!"

Narkom made a curious sort of gulping sound, whipped out his
handkerchief and began to dab his bald spot, and looked round at
Cleek out of the tail of his eye. But Cleek neither moved nor
spoke nor made any sign--merely pushed his lower lip out over his
upper one and stood frowning at the stable door.

And here--just here--a strange and even startling thing occurred.
With just one hoarse "Toot-toot!" to give warning of its coming, a
public taxi swung round the curve of the road, jerked itself up to
a sudden standstill within a rope's cast of the spot where the four
were standing, and immediately there rang fort