answered Davidge. "You see, I know a bit--perhaps a good
deal--of what's going on--or what's going to go on, presently. So will
you. I'll take you in there."

"There? Where?" demanded Triffitt.

"Where he's gone," said Davidge. "Where--if I'm not mistaken--that
chap's going."

He pointed to a man who had come quickly round the corner from the
direction of the High Street, a middle-sized, apparently well-dressed
man, who hurried up the broad steps and disappeared within the
glass-panelled doors.

"That's another of 'em," observed Davidge. "And I'm a Dutchman if this
taxi-cab doesn't hold t'other two. You'll recognize them, easy."

Triffitt gaped with astonishment as he saw Professor Cox-Raythwaite and
Selwood descend from the taxi-cab, pass up the steps, and disappear.

"Talk of mysteries!" he said. "This----"

Davidge pulled out an old-fashioned watch.

"Nine o'clock," he remarked. "Come on--we'll go in. Now, then, Mr.
Triffitt," he continued, pressing his companion's arm, "let me give you
a tip. You mayn't know that I'm a Yorkshireman--I am! We've a good old
proverb--it's often cast up against us: 'Hear all--say naught!' You'll
see me act on it tonight--act on it yourself. And--a word in your
ear!--you're going to have the biggest surprise you ever had in your
life--and so's a certain somebody else that we shall see in five
minutes! Come on!"

He took Triffitt's arm firmly in his, led him up the stairs, in at the
doors. The hall-porter came forward.

"Take me up," said Davidge, "to Mrs. Engledew's flat."

CHAPTER XXXIII

BURCHILL FILLS THE STAGE

It seemed to Triffitt, who possessed, and sedulously cultivated, a sense
of the dramatic, that the scene to which he and Davidge were presently
conducted by a trim and somewhat surprised-looking parlour-maid, was one
which might have been bodily lifted from the stage of any theatre
devoted to work of the melodramatic order. The detective and the
reporter found themselves on the threshold of a handsomely furnished
dining-room, vividly lighted by lamps which threw a warm pink glow over
the old oak furniture and luxurious fittings. On one side of the big
table sat Professor Cox-Raythwaite and Selwood both looking a little
mystified; at the further end sat a shortish, rather fat man, obviously
a foreigner, who betrayed anxiety in every line of his rather oily
countenance. And posed in an elegant attitude on the hearthrug, one
elbow resting on the black ma