t they find it necessary to search your garage for a
car which has been seen in the neighbourhood."

"Search my garage?" Lord Maltenby repeated, frowning.

"There is no doubt," the Colonel explained, "that a car was made use
of last night by the man who is still at large, and it is very possible
that it was stolen. You will understand, I am sure, that any enquiries
which my men may feel it their duty to make are actuated entirely by
military necessity."

"Quite so," the Earl acceded, still a little puzzled. "You will find
my head chauffeur a most responsible man. He will, I am sure, give them
every possible information. So far as I am aware, however, there is no
strange car in the garage. Do you know of any, Julian?"

"Only Miss Abbeway's," his son replied. "Her little Panhard was out in
the avenue all night, waiting for her to put some plugs in. Every one
else seems to have come by train."

The Colonel raised his eyebrows very slightly and moved slowly towards
the door.

"The matter is in the hands of my police," he said, "but if you could
excuse me for half a moment, Lord Maltenby, I should like to speak to
your head chauffeur."

"By all means," the Earl replied. "I will take you round to the garage
myself."

CHAPTER VI

Julian entered the drawing-room hurriedly a few minutes later.
He glanced around quickly, conscious of a distinct feeling of
disappointment. His mother, who was arranging a bridge table, called him
over to her side.

"You have the air, my dear boy, of missing some one," she remarked with
a smile.

"I want particularly to speak to Miss Abbeway," he confided.

Lady Maltenby smiled tolerantly.

"After nearly two hours of conversation at dinner! Well, I won't keep
you in suspense. She wanted a quiet place to write some letters, so I
sent her into the boudoir."

Julian hastened off, with a word of thanks. The boudoir was a small
room opening from the suite which had been given to the Princess and her
niece a quaint, almost circular apartment, hung with faded blue Chinese
silk and furnished with fragments of the Louis Seize period,--a rosewood
cabinet, in particular, which had come from Versailles, and which was
always associated in Julian's mind with the faint fragrance of two
Sevres jars of dried rose leaves. The door opened almost noiselessly.

Catherine, who was seated before a small, ebony writing table, turned
her head at his entrance.

"You?" she exclaimed.

Julian lis