ake
it that I have a right to see that message."

He spoke authoritatively. Her hand fumbled beneath her apron and she
produced a buff-coloured envelope. The detective took out and unfolded
the wire. He read--

"Mrs. Ellis, Dalehurst Grange, Dalehurst.--There has been mistake
of identity. Am safe and well. Shall be down this evening, but time
uncertain. Please have room ready. Let no one know you have heard
from me. Burn this.--R. G."

The detective refolded the telegram and placed it in his waistcoat
pocket. His mind dwelt more on the significance of its dispatch from
Liverpool than on the message itself. The Princess had been at
Liverpool. It was a plausible presumption that she had sent the wire and
that she therefore must have been in touch with Grell.

"Yes, I guess you must have been a bit startled when you got that," he
said. "Did Mr. Grell give any explanation when he came?"

"Yes, in a way. He got here an hour or two after it came and must have
let himself in with his own key. He walked in on me while I was doing
some sewing in my own sitting-room. He said that the police had asked
him to keep out of the way, because if it was known that he was alive it
might hamper them. He told me not even to let the maids know that he was
here, and he came straight up to this room and locked himself in. I had
made a bed ready, but he has slept on the couch over there." She nodded
towards a big settee under the window. "He said the bedroom might do for
a lady friend he was expecting who might arrive at any moment. He told
me, too, that it might be necessary to leave suddenly."

The old lady had, it was evident, made a good guess at the identity of
her questioner or she would not have answered so freely, in spite of the
detective's authoritative manner. Foyle put one or two further questions
to her and then dismissed her with a quiet word of thanks. He began to
see that he had struck harder than he knew when he had descended on the
house in the guise of a burglar. Dalehurst Grange was, of course, a
rendezvous, and the Princess Petrovska was on her way to join Grell. The
superintendent rubbed his hands together as he thought of the surprise
in store for her.

Dawn was breaking over the woods when Robert Grell woke with a shiver.
He stood up and stretched himself. "Good morning, Mr. Foyle," he said
genially. "I'm afraid I dropped off, but I've had rather a wearying time
lately. Now, what's the program