e terrible pitfall into which I had fallen.

"But you said you knew Mr. Lewis--the gentleman who acted as president
of that mysterious conference!" Miss Hammond declared, in all
innocence.

"I think, sir," added the inspector, "that the matter is such a grave
one that you should at once reveal all you do know. You probably
overlook the fact that if you persist in silence you may be arrested
as an accessory."

"But I know nothing," I protested; "nothing whatever concerning the
robbery!"

"But you know one of the men," said Cross the boots.

"And the lady also, without a doubt!" added the inspector.

"I refuse to be cross-examined in this manner by you!" I retorted in
anger, yet full of apprehension now that I saw myself suspected of
friendship with the gang.

"Well, sir, then I regret that I must ask you to walk over the bridge
with me to the police-station. I must take you before the
superintendent," he said firmly.

"But I know nothing," I again protested.

"Come with me," he said, with a grim smile of disbelief. "That you'll
be compelled to prove."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

MORE STRANGE FACTS

Compelled against my will to accompany the inspector to the police
head-quarters in the High Street, I made a statement--a rather lame
one, I fear.

I concealed the fact that the lady of the previous night's conference
was my wife, and explained my visit to Stamford, and my inquiries at
the George, by the fact that I had met the man Lewis abroad, and had
had some financial dealings with him, which, I now suspected, were not
altogether square. So, hearing that he had motored to the north, I had
followed, and had inquired at several of the well-known motoring
hotels for news of him, being unsuccessful until I had arrived at
Stamford.

This story would, of course, not have held water had Miss Hammond, the
manageress, been present. Happily, however, she had not accompanied
me, hence I was able to concoct a somewhat plausible excuse to the
local superintendent.

"Then you actually know nothing concerning these people?" he asked,
regarding me shrewdly.

"Nothing beyond the fact of meeting Lewis abroad, and very foolishly
trusting in his honesty."

The superintendent smiled. I think he regarded me as a bit of a fool.
Probably I had been.

"They are a clever gang, no doubt," he declared. "The Archduchess's
necklace must have been stolen by some one travelling in the train.
I've been on to Scotland Yard by