y who
spoke.

"I can carry it on," she said.

She was wonderfully self-possessed, thought T. X., but then T. X. never
thought anything of her but that she was "wonderfully" something or the
other.

"Most of your story is true, Mr. Lexman," said this astonishing girl,
oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, "but Kara
deceived you in one respect."

"What do you mean?" asked John Lexman, rising unsteadily to his feet.

For answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintz curtains
and flung it open: There was a wait which seemed an eternity, and then
through the doorway came a girl, slim and grave and beautiful.

"My God!" whispered T. X. "Grace Lexman!"

CHAPTER XXIII

They went out and left them alone, two people who found in this moment
a heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity, but which is seldom
attained to. Belinda Mary had an eager audience all to her very self.

"Of course she didn't die," she said scornfully. "Kara was playing on
his fears all the time. He never even harmed her--in the way Mr. Lexman
feared. He told Mrs. Lexman that her husband was dead just as he told
John Lexman his wife was gone. What happened was that he brought her
back to England--"

"Who?" asked T. X., incredulously.

"Grace Lexman," said the girl, with a smile. "You wouldn't think it
possible, but when you realize that he had a yacht of his own and that
he could travel up from whatever landing place he chose to his house in
Cadogan Square by motorcar and that he could take her straight away into
his cellar without disturbing his household, you'll understand that the
only difficulty he had was in landing her. It was in the lower cellar
that I found her."

"You found her in the cellar?" demanded the Chief Commissioner.

The girl nodded.

"I found her and the dog--you heard how Kara terrified her--and I
killed the dog with my own hands," she said a little proudly, and then
shivered. "It was very beastly," she admitted.

"And she's been living with you all this time and you've said nothing!"
asked T. X., incredulously. Belinda Mary nodded.

"And that is why you didn't want me to know where you were living?" She
nodded again.

"You see she was very ill," she said, "and I had to nurse her up, and of
course I knew that it was Lexman who had killed Kara and I couldn't tell
you about Grace Lexman without betraying him. So when Mr. Lexman decided
to tell his story, I thought I'd bette