nt, and I'll take my oath to it."

Henson fairly gasped. He had been inside that said sitting-room not two
hours before, and he had not failed to notice a roll of paper on the
mantelshelf. And obviously Merritt was telling the truth. And equally
obviously the Rembrandt was hanging in the corridor at the present
moment. Henson had solved and evolved many ingenious puzzles in his time,
but this one was utterly beyond him.

"Some trick of Dr. Bell's, perhaps," Merritt suggested.

"Bell suspects nothing. He is absolutely friendly to me. He could not
disguise his feelings like that. Upon my word I was never so utterly at
sea before in all my life. And as for Littimer, why, he has just made a
fresh will more in my favour than the old one. But I'll find out. I'll
get to the bottom of this business if it costs me a fortune."

He frowned moodily at his boots; he turned the thing over in his mind
until his brain was dazed and muddled. The Rembrandt had been stolen, and
yet there was the Rembrandt in its place. Was anything more amazing and
puzzling? And nobody else seemed in the least troubled about it. Henson
was more than puzzled; deep down in his heart he was frightened.

"I must keep my eyes open," he said. "I must watch night and day. Do you
suppose Miss Lee noticed anything when she called to-day?"

"Not a bit of it," said Merritt, confidently "She came to see me; she
had no eyes for anybody but your humble servant. Where did she get my
address from? Why, didn't you introduce me to the lady yourself, and
didn't I tell her I was staying at Moreton Wells for a time? I'm goin'
to live in clover for a bit, my pippin. Cigars and champagne, wine and
all the rest of it."

"I wish you were at the bottom of the sea before you came here," Henson
growled. "You mind and be careful what you're doing with the champagne.
They don't drink by the tumbler in the society you are in now, remember.
Just one or two glasses and no more. If you take too much and let your
tongue run you will find your stay here pretty short."

Apparently the hint was not lost on Merritt, for dinner found him in a
chastened mood. His natural audacity was depressed by the splendour and
luxury around him; the moral atmosphere held him down. There were so
many knives and forks and glasses on the table, such a deal of food that
was absolutely strange to him. The butler behind made him shiver.
Hitherto in Merritt's investigations into great houses he had fought
p