he offer of the job by the desk
so that he would see it was a genuine stunt. Then I wrote my letter to
Mr. Carter and rang up Sir James. Taking him into my confidence would
be the best thing either way, so I told him everything except where I
believed the papers to be hidden. The way he helped me to get on the
track of Tuppence and Annette almost disarmed me, but not quite. I kept
my mind open between the two of them. And then I got a bogus note from
Tuppence--and I knew!"

"But how?"

Tommy took the note in question from his pocket and passed it round the
table.

"It's her handwriting all right, but I knew it wasn't from her because
of the signature. She'd never spell her name 'Twopence,' but anyone
who'd never seen it written might quite easily do so. Julius HAD seen
it--he showed me a note of hers to him once--but SIR JAMES HADN'T! After
that everything was plain sailing. I sent off Albert post-haste to Mr.
Carter. I pretended to go away, but doubled back again. When Julius came
bursting up in his car, I felt it wasn't part of Mr. Brown's plan--and
that there would probably be trouble. Unless Sir James was actually
caught in the act, so to speak, I knew Mr. Carter would never believe it
of him on my bare word----"

"I didn't," interposed Mr. Carter ruefully.

"That's why I sent the girls off to Sir James. I was sure they'd fetch
up at the house in Soho sooner or later. I threatened Julius with the
revolver, because I wanted Tuppence to repeat that to Sir James, so that
he wouldn't worry about us. The moment the girls were out of sight I
told Julius to drive like hell for London, and as we went along I told
him the whole story. We got to the Soho house in plenty of time and met
Mr. Carter outside. After arranging things with him we went in and hid
behind the curtain in the recess. The policemen had orders to say, if
they were asked, that no one had gone into the house. That's all."

And Tommy came to an abrupt halt.

There was silence for a moment.

"By the way," said Julius suddenly, "you're all wrong about that
photograph of Jane. It WAS taken from me, but I found it again."

"Where?" cried Tuppence.

"In that little safe on the wall in Mrs. Vandemeyer's bedroom."

"I knew you found something," said Tuppence reproachfully. "To tell you
the truth, that's what started me off suspecting you. Why didn't you
say?"

"I guess I was a mite suspicious too. It had been got away from me once,
and I determined I