back, she said, until to-morrow noon. The servants--given
permission by the gentleman known in the house as Monsieur Gaston
Merode, and who had graciously provided a huge char-a-banc for the
purpose--had gone in a body to a fair over in the neighbourhood of
Sevres, and darkness and stillness filled the long, broad corridor of
the Chateau Larouge. Of a sudden, however, a mere thread of sound
wavered through the silence, and from the direction of Miss Lorne's room
a figure in black, with feet muffled in thick woollen stockings, padded
to an angle of the passage, lifted a trap carefully hidden beneath a
huge tiger-skin rug, and almost immediately Cleek's head rose up out of
the gap.

"Thank God you managed to do it. I was horribly afraid you would not,"
said Ailsa in a palpitating whisper.

"You need not have been," he answered. "I know a dozen places besides
'The Inn of the Twisted Arm' from which one can get into the sewers.
I've screwed a bolt and socket on the inner side of this trap in case
of an emergency, and I've carried a few things into the passage for
'afterward.' I suppose that fellow Merode, as he calls himself, is in
his room, waiting?"

"Yes; and, although he pretends to be alone to-night, he has other men
with him, hideous, ruffianly looking creatures, whom I saw him admit
after the servants had gone. The countess has left the house and gone I
don't know where."

"I do, then. Make certain that she's at 'The Twisted Arm,' waiting,
first, for the coming of Clodoche, and, second, for the arrival of this
precious 'Merode' with the remaining half of the document. I've sent
Dollops there to carry out his part of the programme, and when once I
get the password Margot requires before she will hand over the paper,
the game will be in my hands entirely. They are desperate to-night, Miss
Lorne, and will stop at nothing--not even murder. There! the rug's
replaced. Quick! lead me to the baron's room, there's not a minute to
waste."

She took his hand and led him tiptoe through the darkness, and in
another moment he was in the Baron de Carjorac's presence.

"Oh, monsieur, God forever bless you!" exclaimed the broken old man,
throwing himself on his knees before Cleek.

"Out with the light--out with the light!" exclaimed he, ducking down
suddenly. "Were you mad to keep it burning till I came, with that,"
pointing to a huge bay window opening upon a balcony, "uncurtained and
the grounds, no doubt, alive with spie