utton the unaccustomed stiff white collar round his throat. Merritt
whipped a tumbler under the table with amazing celerity, but no cunning
of his could remove the smell of gin that hung pungently on the murky
atmosphere.

Merritt dodged his head back defiantly as if half expecting a blow. His
eyes were strained a little anxiously over Bell's shoulder as if fearful
of a shadow. Bell had seen the type before--Merritt was unconsciously
looking for the police.

"I am so glad to find you at home," Chris said, sweetly.

Merritt muttered something that hardly sounded complimentary. It was
quite evident that he was far from returning the compliment. He had
recognised Bell, and was wondering fearfully if the latter was as sure
of his identity. Bell's face betrayed nothing. All the same he was
following Merritt's uneasy eye till it rested on a roll of dirty paper
on the mantelshelf. That roll of paper was the missing Rembrandt, and
he knew it.

"Won't you offer me a chair?" Chris asked, in the sweetest
possible manner.

Merritt sulkily emptied a chair of a pile of cheap sporting papers, and
demanded none too politely what business the lady had with him. Chris
proceeded to explain at considerable length. As Merritt listened his
eyes gleamed and a broadening grin spread over his face. He had done a
great deal of that kind of thing, he admitted. Since Henson had taken
him up the police had not been anything like so inquisitive, and his
present pose was fruitful of large predatory gains. The latter fact
Merritt kept to himself. On the whole the prospect appealed to his
imagination. Henson wouldn't like it, but, then, Henson was not in a
position to say too much.

"I thought perhaps if you came over with us and dined at the castle,"
Chris suggested. She spoke slowly and thoughtfully, with her eyes on the
ground. "Say to-night. Will you come?"

Merritt grinned extensively once more. The idea of his dining at the
castle appealed to his own peculiar sense of humour. He was at his ease,
seeing that Bell failed to recognise him. To dine at the castle, to note
the plate, and get a minute geographical knowledge of the place from
personal observation! ... His mouth watered at the thought.

"They ought to be more careful yonder," he suggested. "There's plate and
there's pictures."

"Nothing has ever been stolen from Littimer Castle," Bell said, crisply.
He read the leer in Merritt's eyes as he spoke of pictures. "Nothing
whatever.