the morning, I suddenly heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushed
back and the creaking of a key. A moment later the servants' door was
opened, and Mr. Joseph Harrison stepped out into the moonlight."

"Joseph!" ejaculated Phelps.

"He was bare-headed, but he had a black coat thrown over his shoulder so
that he could conceal his face in an instant if there were any alarm. He
walked on tiptoe under the shadow of the wall, and when he reached the
window he worked a long-bladed knife through the sash and pushed back
the catch. Then he flung open the window, and putting his knife through
the crack in the shutters, he thrust the bar up and swung them open.

"From where I lay I had a perfect view of the inside of the room and of
every one of his movements. He lit the two candles which stood upon the
mantelpiece, and then he proceeded to turn back the corner of the carpet
in the neighborhood of the door. Presently he stopped and picked out a
square piece of board, such as is usually left to enable plumbers to get
at the joints of the gas-pipes. This one covered, as a matter of
fact, the T joint which gives off the pipe which supplies the kitchen
underneath. Out of this hiding-place he drew that little cylinder
of paper, pushed down the board, rearranged the carpet, blew out the
candles, and walked straight into my arms as I stood waiting for him
outside the window.

"Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him credit for, has
Master Joseph. He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grasp him
twice, and got a cut over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand of
him. He looked murder out of the only eye he could see with when we had
finished, but he listened to reason and gave up the papers. Having
got them I let my man go, but I wired full particulars to Forbes this
morning. If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good. But
if, as I shrewdly suspect, he finds the nest empty before he gets there,
why, all the better for the government. I fancy that Lord Holdhurst for
one, and Mr. Percy Phelps for another, would very much rather that the
affair never got as far as a police-court.

"My God!" gasped our client. "Do you tell me that during these long ten
weeks of agony the stolen papers were within the very room with me all
the time?"

"So it was."

"And Joseph! Joseph a villain and a thief!"

"Hum! I am afraid Joseph's character is a rather deeper and more
dangerous one than one might judge from hi