y voice, "it's a question of sauve qui peut now... every
man for himself!"

"No!" said Strangwise firmly, "we'll wait for Minna, Bellward.
You exaggerate the danger. I tell you I was at the garden wall
within a few seconds of our friend laying you out, and I saw no
sign of him in his garden. It was a physical impossibility for
him to have got over the wall and back into the house in the
time. And in his garden there's nowhere to hide. It's as bare as
the Sahara!"

"But, good Heavens!" cried Bellward, throwing his hands excitedly
above his head, "the man can't dissolve into thin air. He's gone
back to the house, I tell you, and the police will be here at any
minute. You know he's not in our garden; for you searched every
nook and corner of it yourself. Okewood may be too clever for
you, Strangwise; but he's not a magician!"

"No," said Strangwise sternly, "he is not." And he added in a low
voice:

"That's why I am convinced that he is in this house!"

Desmond felt his heart thump against his ribs.

Bellward seemed surprised for he cried quickly:

"What? Here?"

Strangwise nodded.

"You stand here gossiping with that man loose in the house?"
exclaimed Bellward vehemently, "why the next thing we know the
fellow will escape us again!"

"Oh, no, he won't" retorted the other. "Every window on the
ground floor is barred... this is a home for neurasthenics, you
know, and that is sometimes a polite word for a lunatic, my
friend... and the doors, both front and back are locked. The keys
are here!"

Desmond heard a jingle as Strangwise slapped his pocket.

"All the same," the latter went on, "it is as well to be prepared
for a sudden change of quarters. That's why I want you to finish
off the girl at once. Come along, we'll start now..."

"No, no!" declared Bellward. "I'm far too upset. You seem to
think you can turn me on and off like you do the gas!"

"Well, as you like," said Strangwise, "but the sooner we clear up
this thing the better. I'm going to see if our clever young
friend has taken refuge in the servants' quarters upstairs. He's
not on this floor, that's certain!"

Desmond drew back in terror. He heard the green baize door on the
floor below swing back as Strangwise went out to the back stairs
and Bellward's heavy step ascended the main staircase. There was
something so horribly sinister in that firm, creaking tread as it
mounted towards him that for the moment he lost his head. He
looked round w