ic, the meeting
room with its long table. But nowhere was there a trace of papers.
Everything of that kind had either been destroyed or taken away. And
there was no sign of Annette.

"What you tell me about the girl puzzled me," said Mr. Carter. "You
believe that she deliberately went back?"

"It would seem so, sir. She ran upstairs while I was getting the door
open."

"H'm, she must belong to the gang, then; but, being a woman, didn't feel
like standing by to see a personable young man killed. But evidently
she's in with them, or she wouldn't have gone back."

"I can't believe she's really one of them, sir. She--seemed so
different----"

"Good-looking, I suppose?" said Mr. Carter with a smile that made Tommy
flush to the roots of his hair. He admitted Annette's beauty rather
shamefacedly.

"By the way," observed Mr. Carter, "have you shown yourself to Miss
Tuppence yet? She's been bombarding me with letters about you."

"Tuppence? I was afraid she might get a bit rattled. Did she go to the
police?"

Mr. Carter shook his head.

"Then I wonder how they twigged me."

Mr. Carter looked inquiringly at him, and Tommy explained. The other
nodded thoughtfully.

"True, that's rather a curious point. Unless the mention of the Ritz was
an accidental remark?"

"It might have been, sir. But they must have found out about me suddenly
in some way."

"Well," said Mr. Carter, looking round him, "there's nothing more to be
done here. What about some lunch with me?"

"Thanks awfully, sir. But I think I'd better get back and rout out
Tuppence."

"Of course. Give her my kind regards and tell her not to believe you're
killed too readily next time."

Tommy grinned.

"I take a lot of killing, sir."

"So I perceive," said Mr. Carter dryly. "Well, good-bye. Remember you're
a marked man now, and take reasonable care of yourself."

"Thank you, sir."

Hailing a taxi briskly Tommy stepped in, and was swiftly borne to the
Ritz' dwelling the while on the pleasurable anticipation of startling
Tuppence.

"Wonder what she's been up to. Dogging 'Rita' most likely. By the way,
I suppose that's who Annette meant by Marguerite. I didn't get it at the
time." The thought saddened him a little, for it seemed to prove that
Mrs. Vandemeyer and the girl were on intimate terms.

The taxi drew up at the Ritz. Tommy burst into its sacred portals
eagerly, but his enthusiasm received a check. He was informed that Miss
Cowley had gone o