on't
sell?"

"So she assures me," answered Lewis. "You see, she couldn't be sure
Justin wasn't standing behind a dummy buyer, now she knows he's
definitely after the place, and able to purchase for a decent price. I
take it that in the circumstances she won't sell to any one. Perhaps she
never meant to when the test came."

"So poor O'Reilly wants the home of his ancestors?"

"He does. I've known of that dream for years. He told me once he'd grown
up with it."

Roger made his comment upon this: but he determined to write to Miss
O'Reilly the moment Lewis had gone.

XXV

KRANTZ'S KELLER

Clo had been able to think very clearly, while there had been something
definite to think about, but her brain refused this problem of an extra
five minutes, which might mean success or failure. She couldn't stop
where she was; she couldn't hang about in the street, lest the real Kit
had given the false Kit away to the "gang"; yet to dawdle in the
corridor, or on the stairs of the Westmorland Hotel, was unthinkable.
When the murder of Peterson was discovered someone might remember that
slim girl in brown. The police were diabolically clever--now and then.
Who could say if they might not trace that girl in brown, and, finding
her, eventually reach Beverley Sands?

"One minute must have gone, just while I've been thinking of it!" Clo
told herself. "And Peterson hasn't come alive. Now, if I can only think
hard enough, and forget him and the silence, for two or three minutes, I
can start."

But the silence broke. Once more her nerves thrilled to the telephone
bell. She was standing by the door, her back resolutely turned to the
figure in the chair, when the sound began. The girl snatched the
receiver and called "Hello" but no one answered. She must get out
quickly, at the risk of having to wait in the street before O'Reilly
could arrive.

"Unless they live close by, they won't have had time to reach me yet,
even if Kit's given the show away," Clo thought. But of course, "Chuff"
might have 'phoned from a house round the corner. Peterson might have
chosen the Westmorland Hotel in order to be near his friends!

Clo locked the door, took out the key, and dropped it behind the trunk
at the end of the hall. That would not be unfair to the owner of the
trunk, she thought, for in any case, the blood stains would direct
suspicion to Peterson's vanished neighbour. The key would be only a
detail.

As she descended the stairway