ost too much for my self-possession, and I advanced
upon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice of
Mr. Gryce stopped me.

"Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here."

It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved,
waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look!
Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so many
trying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal,
I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without some
emotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception,
but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to this
adventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was,
not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well.

The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired,
and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained me
till the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and to
my intense astonishment--for I had thought the matter was all over and
the exoneration of this household complete--said softly and with telling
emphasis in my ear:

"Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellars
must have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still some
digging to do."

XXXI

STRATEGY

I was overwhelmed.

"What," said I, "you still doubt?"

"I always doubt," he gravely replied. "This cellar bottom offers a wide
field for speculation. Too wide, perhaps, but, then, I have a plan."

Here he leaned over and whispered a few concise sentences into my ear in
a tone so low I should feel that I was betraying his confidence in
repeating them. But their import will soon become apparent from what
presently occurred.

"Light Miss Butterworth to the stairway," Mr. Gryce now commanded one of
the men, and thus accompanied I found my way back to the kitchen, where
Hannah was bemoaning uncomforted the shame which had come upon the
house.

I did not stop to soothe her. That was not my cue, nor would it have
answered my purpose. On the contrary, I broke into angry ejaculations as
I passed her:

"What a shame! Those wretches cannot be got away from the cellar. What
do you suppose they expect to find there? I left them poking hither and
thither in a way that will be very irritating to Miss Knollys when she
fin