nd doubt, all her movements had been spied and marked, and Ravengar
had been in a position to complete his arrangements--whatever his
arrangements were--at leisure and with absolute freedom. She had taken a
room in Horseferry Road, and he had followed.... What was the sequel to
be?

That she was in his power at that moment Hugo could not question.

And the chloroform?

At that moment Ravengar had meant that the Hugo building should have
been a funeral pyre--a spectacle to petrify the Metropolis. And it
seemed to Hugo that if Ravengar was mad, as he must be, he could only
have designed the spectacle as something final, as at once a last
revenge and an accompaniment to the supreme sacrifice of Camilla.

'We must get into that house immediately,' said Hugo, when he had
finished his own narrative. 'The question is how?'

'I've got a card of Inspector Wilbraham's, of the Yard, in my pocket,'
Albert suggested. 'We might use that, and make out that this purchase of
chloroform under a false name had got to be explained to the Yard
instantly.'

Albert had recently become rather intimate with Scotland Yard. Inspector
Wilbraham had even called on him in reference to Bentley's death and the
disappearance of Brown; and Albert was duly proud.

'We will try that,' said Hugo. 'Have you any handcuffs?'

'No, sir.'

'Go and obtain a couple of pairs. You can be back in twenty minutes.
Bring also my revolver.'

Hugo and Simon were left alone. Hugo spoke no word.

'I'll put the room to rights, sir,' said Simon, after a pause. He could
bear the inaction no longer.

Hugo nodded absently, and Simon collected the ruins of the vile repast
which his master had consumed, and put them outside on a tray on the
landing.

'There's a light now in the first story!' exclaimed Hugo. 'I hope that
boy won't be long.'

And then Albert arrived with the revolver and the handcuffs. He had been
supernaturally quick.

They descended and crossed the road.

'You understand,' Hugo instructed them. 'Let us have no mistake about
getting in. Immediately the door is opened, in we all go. We can talk
inside.'

'Supposing Albert and me went down to the area-door,' Simon ventured,
'instead of the front-door. We might get in easier that way. It's always
easier to deal with servant-girls and persons of that sort in kitchens.
Then we could come upstairs and let you in at the front-door. Three
detectives seem rather a lot to be entering all at once. And,