ormed by a hinged flap which
serves when not in use to close the desk.

She pulled out the two little supports, inserted the key in the lock,
but it refused to turn, for the simple reason that it was unlocked. She
had distinctly remembered that morning locking it after putting away the
bill which had arrived with the morning post.

She pulled down the flap slowly and stared in amazement at the little
which it hid. Every pigeon-hole had been ransacked and the contents were
piled up in a confused heap. The two tiny drawers in which she kept
stamps and nibs were out and emptied.

CHAPTER IV

THE LETTERS THAT WERE NOT THERE

She made a rapid survey of the documents. They were unimportant, and
consisted mainly of letters from the few girl friends she had made
during her stay at Punsonby's--old theatre programmes, recipes copied
from newspapers and bunches of snapshots taken on her last summer
excursion.

She arranged the things in some sort of rough order and made an
inspection of her bedroom. Here, too, there was evidence that somebody
had been searching the room. The drawers of her dressing-table were
open, and though the contents had been little disturbed, it was clear
that they had been searched. She made another discovery. The window of
the bedroom was open at the bottom. Usually it was open half-way down
from the top, and was fastened in that position by a patent catch. This
precaution was necessary, because the window looked upon a narrow iron
parapet which ran along the building and communicated with the
fire-escape. She looked out. Evidently the intruder had both come and
gone this way, and as evidently her return had disturbed him in his
inspection, for it was hardly likely he would leave her papers and
bureau in that state of confusion.

She made a brief inspection of the drawers in the dressing-table, and so
far as she could see nothing was missing. She went back to the
writing-bureau, mechanically put away the papers, little
memorandum-books and letters which had been dragged from their
pigeon-holes, then resting her elbow on the desk she sat, chin in hand,
her pretty forehead wrinkled in a frown, recalling the events of the
morning.

Who had searched her desk? What did they hope to discover? She had no
illusions that this was the work of a common thief. There was something
behind all this, something sinister and terrifying.

What association had the search with her summary dismissal and what