"The papers you returned to me that Sunday night?"

"It wasn't I who returned them. I don't know who did send them. It's the
greatest mystery! But if you love me, you'll hand them back."

O'Reilly looked grave. "I love you," he said, "more than I ever thought
it was in me to love, though I had an idea it might go hard with me when
my time came. But I gave the papers to Heron, whose property they
were--and are. I was only keeping them for him because he had reason to
think they weren't safe in his possession."

"John Heron!" Clo echoed. A thought had suddenly started out from the
background of her mind, pushing in front of her fears for Beverley.
"Yes, of course, he's a friend of yours! But he's in worse danger than
his papers ever were. From things they said, I believe Pete came East on
purpose to kill him. Of course, there were the papers to get as well.
But he wanted to kill John Heron. It was Chuff who ordered him to get
the papers. Pete had some grudge of his own against Mr. Heron, so he
made a good catspaw. When Pete was killed, Chuff had to find someone
else to do the job. I don't know John Heron, and never saw him in my
life, so I----"

"There you're mistaken," O'Reilly broke in. "Did you notice any one
coming out of a room next to my suite when you were letting yourself in
with my key which you had--er--found?"

"Yes!" cried Clo. "A beautiful woman in a black dress with gorgeous
jewellery; and a tall man with reddish hair and beard and--Oh, eyes!
Great dark eyes that looked at me in a strange way. I felt them in my
spine."

"That was the first time you saw John Heron, the man his enemies still
call the Oil Trust King--though thanks to Roger Sands they daren't call
him that out aloud. The second time must have been in Heron's own room.
But you shall judge for yourself. He'd been downstairs with his wife. He
went up to his rooms again for something, and in the hall outside his
own door--which he'd just unlocked--he fell down in a sort of fainting
fit. Well, putting two and two together, after you told me your
adventure creeping along the ledge from my window to his, it occurred to
me that there'd been just cause for the seizure. I didn't think Heron
was the man to keel over in a faint, even for a thing like that. All the
same, seeing that ghostly vision would account for his attack."

"I understand," said Clo. "I saw he was flabbergasted. But that first
time at the door, when he was with his wife, he didn