arty,"
Berrington cried; "the very collar that he was wearing at the time he
disappeared. And the same collar I found not an hour ago in Mr.
Sartoris's dining-room. Not in the dining-room proper, but in a kind of
vault under the floor. What is the explanation of this, I wonder?"

"If you are so cursedly clever," Sartoris sneered, "you had better find
out for yourself. Get him out of the way, get both of them out of the
way, get the diamonds, and let us disappear. The game is up so far as
England is concerned. Get him out of the way."

Sartoris's voice had risen to a wild scream. He sent his chair rapidly
across the room in the direction of the door. Berrington pulled him up
sharp.

"No tricks," he said sternly. "Now none of those electrical contrivances
of yours. If you move so much as an inch further I'll shoot you like a
dog."

Sartoris pulled up suddenly. He did not need to look at Berrington's
face to feel sure that he was in deadly earnest. At the same time the
man called Reggie leaped at Berrington's throat and bore him backwards.
The assault was so sudden that Berrington dropped the revolver that he
had drawn, at the feet of Beatrice.

"Never mind about me," he called out. "Point the weapon upwards and pull
the trigger."

In a mechanical kind of way Beatrice did as she was told. As the weapon
swayed, the trigger clicked, and the bullet, deflected on the table,
snapped the back leg of Sartoris's chair clean off, so that he came a
huddled mass of bones to the floor. A report followed, and before the
smoke had fully cleared away from Beatrice's eyes it seemed to her that
the room was full of people. There were three or four policemen in
uniform, Field cool and collected, Richford white and sullen, with the
twitching face of Bentwood in the background.

As the man Reggie rose to his feet, the handcuffs were slipped over his
wrists, and the woman was treated in a similar fashion. Only Sartoris,
being absolutely helpless, was spared the like indignity. Field looked
quite satisfied.

"Bagged the whole covey," he said. "Go and stand at the front door, one
of you, and see that nobody goes out. There may be others present, of
whom we know nothing as yet. Now, Mr. Sartoris, I should like to have a
few words with you touching the disappearance of Sir Charles Darryll."

"You think that I murdered him?" Sartoris sneered.

"Certainly not," Field replied. "You can't have murder without a corpse,
and in this case we