he demanded. _Page 152_.]

Arnold, who followed, was stricken speechless. Fenella gave a little
cry. The couch had been wheeled back to its place. The body of the
man had disappeared!

"Where is the burglar?" Mr. Weatherley repeated, irritably. "Was
there ever any one here? Who in the name of mischief left that
window open?"

The window through which Arnold had entered the room was now wide
open. They hurried towards it. Outside, all was darkness. There was
no sound of footsteps, no sign of any person about. Mr. Weatherley
was distinctly annoyed.

"I should have thought you would have had more sense, Chetwode," he
said, testily. "You found a burglar here, and, instead of securing
him properly, you send up to me and go ringing up for doctors, and
in the meantime the man calmly slips off through the window."

Arnold made no reply. Mr. Weatherley's words seemed to come from a
long way off. He was looking at Fenella.

"The man was dead!" he muttered.

She, too, was white, but she shook her head.

"We thought so," she answered. "We were wrong."

Mr. Weatherley led the way to the front door.

"As the dead man seems to have cleared out," he said, "without
taking very much with him, I suggest that we go to bed. Groves had
better ring up the doctor and stop him, if he can; if not, he must
explain that he was sent for in error. Good night, Chetwode!" he
added, pointedly.

Arnold scarcely remembered his farewells. He passed out into the
street and stood for several moments upon the pavement. He looked
back at the house.

"The man was dead or dying!" he muttered to himself. "What does it
all mean?"

He walked slowly away. There was a policeman on the other side of
the road, taxicabs and carriages coming and going. He passed the
gate of Pelham Lodge and looked back toward the window of the
sitting-room. Within five minutes the man must have left that room
by the window. That he could have left it unaided, even if alive,
was impossible. Yet there was not anything in the avenue, or
thereabouts, to denote that anything unusual had occurred. He was on
the point of turning away when a sudden thought struck him. He
re-entered the gate softly and walked up the drive. Arrived at
within a few feet of the window, he paused and turned to the right.
A narrow path led him into a shrubbery. A few more yards and he
reached a wire fence. Stepping across it, he found himself in the
next garden. Here he paused for a moment and lis