wn and joined
the others at breakfast."

"They gave you no indication as to their destination, I suppose?"

"Well, sir, I think they were returning to London, for I heard one of
the gentlemen say something about catching the boat-train."

"They may have meant the Harwich boat-train from the north," I
remarked.

"Very likely, sir. One portion of that train comes through Doncaster
in the afternoon to Peterborough and March, while the other comes down
to Rugby on the North-Western, and then goes across to Peterborough by
way of Market Harborough."

"Then they may have joined that, and if so they would just about be
leaving Parkeston Quay by now!"

"If so, the police are certain to spot them," laughed the waiter.
"They're wanted for the theft of a princess's jewels, they say."

What should I do? It was now long past ten o'clock, and I could not
possibly arrive at Parkeston before early morning. Besides, if they
had really gone there, they would, no doubt, be arrested. The man with
the pimply face whose description so closely tallied with that of
Reckitt, was surely too clever a criminal to run his neck into a noose
by going to any port of embarkation. Therefore I concluded that
whatever had been said at table had been said with the distinct object
of misleading the waiter. The very manner in which the diamonds had
been stolen showed a cunning and a daring unsurpassed. Such men were
certainly not easily trapped.

My sole thought was of Sylvia. I could not bring myself to believe
that she had wilfully forsaken her home and her husband. Upon her, I
felt confident, some species of blackmail had been levied, and she had
been forced away from me by reasons beyond her control.

That incident of the photograph--the picture believed to have been of
myself--which the foreigner tried to secure but which the man Lewis
had himself destroyed, was incomprehensible. What had been intended by
the foreigner?

I gathered all the information I could in the hotel, and then, after a
hasty meal, re-entered the car and set out upon the dark, cold return
journey to London.

Where was Sylvia? Who were her mysterious friends? And, chief of all,
who was that man Lewis who addressed her in such endearing terms?

What could possibly be the solution of the mystery?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"SOME SENSATIONAL REVELATIONS"

The days dragged by. The papers were full of the robbery, declaring
that it had been executed so neatly as to b