's trick!--for close upon sixteen hours! I wasn't
released until Carter, an office boy, came on the scene this morning!"

Very feebly I nodded; I could not talk.

"The strong-room of your bank was rifled under my very eyes last
evening!" he continued, with something of his old vigour; "and five
minutes after the Antiquarian Museum was opened to the public this
morning quite an unusual number of visitors appeared.

"I saw the bank manager the moment he arrived, and learned a piece
of news that positively took my breath away! I was at the Museum
seven minutes later and got another shock! There in the case was
the red slipper!"

"Then," I whispered-"it hadn't been stolen?"

"Wrong! It had! This was a duplicate, as Mostyn, the curator, saw
at a glance! Some of the early visitors--they were Easterns--had
quite surrounded the case. They were watched, of course, but any
number of Orientals come to see the thing; and, short of smashing
the glass, which would immediately attract attention, the authorities
were unprepared, of course, for any attempt. Anyway, they were
tricked. Somebody opened the case. The real slipper of the Prophet
is gone!"

"They told you at the bank--"

"That you had withdrawn the keys! If Dexter had known that!"

"Hassan of Aleppo took them from me last night! At last the
Hashishin have triumphed."

Bristol sank into the armchair.

"Every port is watched," he said. "But--"

CHAPTER XXVIII

CARNETA

"I am entirely at your mercy; you can do as you please with me. But
before you do anything I should like you to listen to what I have
to say."

Her beautiful face was pale and troubled. Violet eyes looked sadly
into mine.

"For nearly an hour I have been waiting for this chance--until I
knew you were alone," she continued. "If you are thinking of giving
me up to the police, at least remember that I came here of my own
free will. Of course, I know you are quite entitled to take
advantage of that; but please let me say what I came to say!"

She pleaded so hard, with that musical voice, with her evident
helplessness, most of all with her wonderful eyes, that I quite
abandoned any project I might have entertained to secure her arrest.
I think she divined this masculine weakness, for she said, with
greater confidence--

"Your friend, Professor Deeping, was murdered by the man called
Hassan of Aleppo. Are you content to remain idle while his murderer
escapes?"

God k