closed again softly, and the conspirators had
vanished. With a gesture of anger Mark strode towards the house, Mary
following.

"What on earth are you going to do?" she said anxiously. "Will you spoil
everything by your impatience? If you only realized the dangers that lie
hidden yonder!"

Mark paused abruptly and bit his lip. The trouble was not over yet.

CHAPTER XXX

Meanwhile, absolutely unconscious of the dangers that were rapidly
closing around her, Beatrice took her way to Wandsworth. Richford had
been ingenious enough to see that Beatrice would go down by rail, as she
had very little money to spare, so that if they desired it, the two
conspirators could have got there before her. But there was no occasion
for that, seeing that Beatrice had the treasure in her pocket and
Sartoris was none the wiser.

Richford would have gone far at that moment to spite Sartoris. He had
tried to play the latter false over the scheme that they had in hand
together, and Sartoris had found him out. The latter made it a rule
never to trust anybody, and he had been suspicious of Richford from the
first. He had known exactly how Richford's affairs stood, he had seen
that a sudden blow dealt at him now would pull the whole structure down
and ruin it for ever. And without the smallest feeling in the matter,
Sartoris had done this thing. But for him Richford could have pulled
around again, as Sartoris had been aware.

But Sartoris had had enough of his ally and in this way he got rid of
him altogether. Richford dared not show his face again; he would have to
leave the country and never return. Sartoris chuckled to himself as he
thought of this.

He was on extremely good terms with himself when Beatrice called. She
had not given the letter from Berrington very much consideration, though
she was a little surprised at the address. Doubtless the matter had
something to do with her father, the girl thought. The mystery of that
strange disappearance was getting on her nerves sadly.

Rather timidly the girl knocked at the door of the gloomy looking house,
which was opened after a pause by a little man in an invalid chair.
Beatrice looked at him in surprise. She gained some courage from a quick
glance at the hall with its electric lights and fine pictures and the
magnificent flowers in pots and vases everywhere. It seemed to Beatrice
that only a woman could be responsible for this good taste, and she took
heart accordingly. No d