urse.

"Was this the cord with which Helene Vauquier's hands were tied?"

"Yes, monsieur," she replied.

Hanaud handed it to the Commissaire.

"It will be necessary to keep that," he said.

It was a thin piece of strong whipcord. It was the same kind of cord as
that which had been found tied round Mme. Dauvray's throat. Hanaud
opened the door and turned back to the nurse.

"We will send for a cab for Mlle. Vauquier. You will drive with her to
her door. I think after that she will need no further help. Pack up a
few things and bring them down. Mlle. Vauquier can follow, no doubt,
now without assistance." And, with a friendly nod, he left the room.

Ricardo had been wondering, through the examination, in what light
Hanaud considered Helene Vauquier. He was sympathetic, but the sympathy
might merely have been assumed to deceive. His questions betrayed in no
particular the colour of his mind. Now, however, he made himself clear.
He informed the nurse, in the plainest possible way, that she was no
longer to act as jailer. She was to bring Vauquier's things down; but
Vauquier could follow by herself. Evidently Helene Vauquier was cleared.

CHAPTER VII

A STARTLING DISCOVERY

Harry Wethermill, however, was not so easily satisfied.

"Surely, monsieur, it would be well to know whither she is going," he
said, "and to make sure that when she has gone there she will stay
there--until we want her again?"

Hanaud looked at the young man pityingly.

"I can understand, monsieur, that you hold strong views about Helene
Vauquier. You are human, like the rest of us. And what she has said to
us just now would not make you more friendly. But--but--" and he
preferred to shrug his shoulders rather than to finish in words his
sentence. "However," he said, "we shall take care to know where Helene
Vauquier is staying. Indeed, if she is at all implicated in this affair
we shall learn more if we leave her free than if we keep her under lock
and key. You see that if we leave her quite free, but watch her very,
very carefully, so as to awaken no suspicion, she may be emboldened to
do something rash--or the others may."

Mr. Ricardo approved of Hanaud's reasoning.

"That is quite true," he said. "She might write a letter."

"Yes, or receive one," added Hanaud, "which would be still more
satisfactory for us--supposing, of course, that she has anything to do
with this affair"; and again he shrugged his shoulders. He turned
t