nly leapt up, flung open
the door, and jumped out. I had enough experience of the London traffic
to clear the car without stumbling.

"I found myself upon a heath, innocent of any cover, save for a belt of
trees about half a mile ahead of me as I ran. Fortunately the down,
which was apparently flat, was, in fact, of a rolling character, and in
two minutes I must have been out of sight of the car--long before they
had brought the driver, himself half asleep probably, to an
understanding that I had made my escape. They caught sight of me as I
came up from the hollow, and one of them must have fired at me, for I
heard the whistle of a bullet pass my head. That is all the story I have
to tell. It was rather a tame conclusion to what promised to be a most
sensational adventure."

At the invitation of the Reverend Jeremiah he drove back to the rectory,
and left T. B. to continue his search for the missing Lady Constance. No
better result attended the second scrutiny of the rooms than had
resulted from the first.

"The only suggestion I can make now," said T. B., helplessly, "is that
whilst our friend the coachman was reading, his lady slipped out without
attracting his attention and strolled away; she will in all probability
be awaiting us at the rectory."

Yet in his heart he knew that this view was absolutely wrong. The locked
doors, the evidence of a struggle in the room, the bloody hand print,
all pointed conclusively to foul play.

"At any rate Lady Constance Dex is somewhere within the radius of four
miles," he said, grimly, "and I will find her if I have to pull down the
Secret House stone by stone."

CHAPTER XVI

The morning of Doris Gray's wedding dawned fair and bright, and she sat
by the window which overlooked the gardens in Brakely Square, her hands
clasped across her knees, her mind in a very tangle of confusion. It was
happy for her (she argued) that there were so many considerations
attached to this wedding that she had not an opportunity of thinking
out, logically and to its proper end, the consequence of this act of
hers.

She had had a wire from Frank on the night previous, and to her surprise
it had been dated from Great Bradley. For some reason which she could
not define she was annoyed that he could leave London, and be so
absorbed in his work on the eve of his wedding. She gathered that his
presence in that town had to do with his investigations in the
Tollington case. She thought tha