t--well, that no harm comes to--you know what I mean, don't you?"

"Yes," murmured Peggie, and once more held out an impulsive hand. But
Selwood again pretended to see nothing, and he began another energetic
assault upon the papers which Jacob Herapath would never handle again.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LAW

Once within a taxi-cab and on their way to Maida Vale, Mr. Halfpenny
turned to his companion with a shake of the head which implied a much
mixed state of feeling.

"Tertius!" he exclaimed. "There's something wrong! Quite apart from what
we know, and from what we were able to communicate to the police,
there's something wrong. I feel it--it's in the air, the--the whole
atmosphere. That fellow Barthorpe is up to some game. What? Did you
notice his manner, his attitude--everything? Of course!--who could help
it? He--has some scheme in his head. Again I say--what?"

Mr. Tertius stirred uneasily in his seat and shook his head.

"You haven't heard anything from New Scotland Yard?" he asked.

"Nothing--so far. But they are at work, of course. They'll work in their
own way. And," continued Mr. Halfpenny, with a grim chuckle, "you can be
certain of this much, Tertius--having heard what we were able to tell
them, having seen what we were able to put before them, with respect to
the doings of that eventful night, they won't let Master Barthorpe out
of their ken--not they! It is best to let them pursue their own
investigations in their own manner--they'll let us know what's been
done, sure enough, at the right time."

"Yes," assented Mr. Tertius. "Yes--so I gather--I am not very conversant
with these things. I confess there's one thing that puzzles me greatly
though, Halfpenny. That's the matter of the man who came out of the House
of Commons with Jacob that night. You remember that the coachman,
Mountain, told us--and said at the inquest also--that he overheard what
Jacob said to that man--'The thing must be done at once, and you must have
everything ready for me at noon tomorrow,' or words to that effect. Now
that man must be somewhere at hand--he must have read the newspapers, know
all about the inquest--why doesn't he come forward?"

Mr. Halfpenny chuckled again and patted his friend's arm.

"Ah!" he said. "But you don't know that he hasn't come forward! The
probability is, Tertius, that he has come forward, and that the people at
New Scotland Yard are already in possession of whatever story he had to
tell. Oh,