.

"Curious," remarked Staff, still thinking.

"Well?" she iterated less patiently. "Is it a practical joke?"

"No," he said, smiling; "to me it looks like business."

"You mean that the thief intends to come here--to bargain with me?"

"I should fancy so, from what he says.... And," Staff added, crossing to
his desk, "forewarned is forearmed."

He bent over and pulled out the drawer containing his revolver. At the
same moment he heard Alison catch her breath sharply, and a man's voice
replied to his platitude.

"Not always," it said crisply. "Be good enough to leave that gun
lay--just hold up your hands, where I can see them, and come away from
that desk."

Staff laughed shortly and swung smartly round, exposing empty hands. In
the brief instant in which his back had been turned a man had let
himself into the study from the hall. He stood now with his back to the
door, covering Staff with an automatic pistol.

"Come away," he said in a peremptory tone, emphasising his meaning with
a flourish of the weapon. "Over here--by Miss Landis, if you please."

Quietly Staff obeyed. He had knocked about the world long enough to
recognise the tone of a man talking business with a gun. He placed
himself beside Alison's chair and waited, wondering.

Indeed, he was very much perplexed and disturbed. For the first time
since Iff had won his confidence against his better judgment, his faith
in the little man was being shaken. This high-handed intruder was so
close a counterpart of Mr. Iff that one had to look twice to distinguish
the difference, and then found the points of variance negligible--so
much so that the fellow might well be Iff in different clothing and
another manner. And Iff could easily have slipped out of the bedroom by
_its_ hall door. Only, to shift his clothes so quickly he would have to
be a lightning-change artist of exceptional ability.

On the whole, Staff decided, this couldn't be Iff. And yet ... and
yet ...

"You may put up that pistol," he said coolly. "I'm not going to jump
you, so it's unnecessary. Besides, it's bad form with a lady present.
And finally, if you should happen to let it off the racket would bring
the police down on you more quickly than you'd like, I fancy."

The man grinned and shoved the weapon into a pocket from which its grip
projected handily.

"Something in what you say," he assented. "Besides, I'm quick,
surprisingly quick with my hands."

"Part of your professional