to a close.

"You got yourself out of a tight place very well," he said gravely. "I
congratulate you. You displayed a great deal of ingenuity and carried
your part through well."

Tommy blushed, his face assuming a prawnlike hue at the praise.

"I couldn't have got away but for the girl, sir."

"No." Sir James smiled a little. "It was lucky for you she happened
to--er--take a fancy to you." Tommy appeared about to protest, but Sir
James went on. "There's no doubt about her being one of the gang, I
suppose?"

"I'm afraid not, sir. I thought perhaps they were keeping her there by
force, but the way she acted didn't fit in with that. You see, she went
back to them when she could have got away."

Sir James nodded thoughtfully.

"What did she say? Something about wanting to be taken to Marguerite?"

"Yes, sir. I suppose she meant Mrs. Vandemeyer."

"She always signed herself Rita Vandemeyer. All her friends spoke of
her as Rita. Still, I suppose the girl must have been in the habit of
calling her by her full name. And, at the moment she was crying out to
her, Mrs. Vandemeyer was either dead or dying! Curious! There are one
or two points that strike me as being obscure--their sudden change
of attitude towards yourself, for instance. By the way, the house was
raided, of course?"

"Yes, sir, but they'd all cleared out."

"Naturally," said Sir James dryly.

"And not a clue left behind."

"I wonder----" The lawyer tapped the table thoughtfully.

Something in his voice made Tommy look up. Would this man's eyes have
seen something where theirs had been blind? He spoke impulsively:

"I wish you'd been there, sir, to go over the house!"

"I wish I had," said Sir James quietly. He sat for a moment in silence.
Then he looked up. "And since then? What have you been doing?"

For a moment, Tommy stared at him. Then it dawned on him that of course
the lawyer did not know.

"I forgot that you didn't know about Tuppence," he said slowly. The
sickening anxiety, forgotten for a while in the excitement of knowing
Jane Finn was found at last, swept over him again.

The lawyer laid down his knife and fork sharply.

"Has anything happened to Miss Tuppence?" His voice was keen-edged.

"She's disappeared," said Julius.

"When?"

"A week ago."

"How?"

Sir James's questions fairly shot out. Between them Tommy and Julius
gave the history of the last week and their futile search.

Sir James went at once to the root of