njured.

Having provided for his immediate needs, I left him in charge of his
young mistress and joined the search party. They had entered the
shrubbery from four points and drawn blank.

"There is absolutely nothing there, and no one can possibly have left
the grounds," said Eltham amazedly.

We stood on the lawn looking at one another, Nayland Smith, angry but
thoughtful, tugging at the lobe of his left ear, as was his habit in
moments of perplexity.

CHAPTER IX

WITH the first coming of light, Eltham, Smith and I tested the
electrical contrivances from every point. They were in perfect order.
It became more and more incomprehensible how anyone could have entered
and quitted Redmoat during the night. The barbed-wire fencing was
intact, and bore no signs of having been tampered with.

Smith and I undertook an exhaustive examination of the shrubbery.

At the spot where we had found the dog, some five paces to the west of
the copper beech, the grass and weeds were trampled and the surrounding
laurels and rhododendrons bore evidence of a struggle, but no human
footprint could be found.

"The ground is dry," said Smith. "We cannot expect much."

"In my opinion," I said, "someone tried to get at Caesar; his presence
is dangerous. And in his rage he broke loose."

"I think so, too," agreed Smith. "But why did this person make for
here? And how, having mastered the dog, get out of Redmoat? I am open
to admit the possibility of someone's getting in during the day whilst
the gates are open, and hiding until dusk. But how in the name of all
that's wonderful does he GET OUT? He must possess the attributes of a
bird."

I thought of Greba Eltham's statements, reminding my friend of her
description of the thing which she had seen passing into this strangely
haunted shrubbery.

"That line of speculation soon takes us out of our depth, Petrie," he
said. "Let us stick to what we can understand, and that may help us to
a clearer idea of what, at present, is incomprehensible. My view of
the case to date stands thus:

"(1) Eltham, having rashly decided to return to the interior of China,
is warned by an official whose friendship he has won in some way to
stay in England.

"(2) I know this official for one of the Yellow group represented in
England by Dr. Fu-Manchu.

"(3) Several attempts, of which we know but little, to get at Eltham
are frustrated, presumably by his curious 'defenses.' An attempt in