kon upon men coming back from the dead," Peter declared.
"It isn't often that you find every morning and every evening paper
mistaken. As for the woman, I believe in her. She honestly meant to sell
us those papers of Bernadine's. I believe that she, too, will have to
face a day of reckoning."

Sogrange strolled around the room, subjecting it everywhere to a close
scrutiny. The result was hopeless. There was no method of escape save
through the door.

"There is certainly something strange about this apartment," Peter
remarked. "It is, to say the least of it, unusual to have windows in the
roof and a door of such proportions. All the same, I think that those
threats of Bernadine's were a little strained. One cannot get rid of
one's enemies nowadays in the old-fashioned, melodramatic way. Bernadine
must know quite well that you and I are not the sort of men to walk into
a trap of anyone's setting, just as I am quite sure that he is not the
man to risk even a scandal by breaking the law openly."

"You interest me," Sogrange said. "I begin to suspect that you, too,
have made some plans."

"But naturally," Peter replied. "Once before Bernadine set a trap for
me, and he nearly had a chance of sending me for a swim in the Thames.
Since then one takes precautions as a matter of course. We were followed
down here, and by this time I should imagine that the alarm is given. If
all was well I was to have telephoned an hour ago."

"You are really," Sogrange declared, "quite an agreeable companion, my
dear Baron. You think of everything."

The door was suddenly opened. Bernadine stood upon the threshold and
behind him several of the servants.

"You will oblige me by stepping back into the study, my friends," he
ordered.

"With great pleasure," Sogrange answered with alacrity. "We have no
fancy for this room, I can assure you."

Once more they crossed the stone hall and entered the room into which
they had first been shown. On the threshold Peter stopped short and
listened. It seemed to him that from somewhere upstairs he could hear
the sound of a woman's sobs. He turned to Bernadine.

"The Baroness is not unwell, I trust?" he asked.

"The Baroness is as well as she is likely to be for some time,"
Bernadine replied grimly.

They were all in the study now. Upon a table stood a telephone
instrument. Bernadine drew a small revolver from his pocket.

"Baron de Grost," he said, "I find that you are not quite such a fool as