said briefly. "I see he's come."

"My God, yes," gasped McGuire. "And you know what he came for--he got
it, Nichols. He got it."

"That proves that he _had_ lost the duplicate," said Peter quietly. "How
did it all happen?"

The old man drew a trembling hand across his brow.

"He took me off my guard--all of us. I don't know. It only happened half
an hour ago. Where's Stryker?"

"He was tied to a chair in the kitchen. We let him loose. He's outside
somewhere."

"And Mrs. Bergen and Sarah?"

"I don't know, sir."

Peter went to the door and called Stryker and that bewildered person
appeared at the foot of the steps with Mrs. Bergen and Sarah who had
been locked in the cellar. Peter called them up and they all began
screaming their tale at once. But at last Peter got at the facts. Hawk
Kennedy had come suddenly into the kitchen where the two women were and,
brandishing a revolver, commanding silence, threatening death if they
made a sound. He had surprised the valet in the lower hall and had
marched him back into the kitchen, where he had bound him to a chair
with a clothes-line and then gagged him.

McGuire waved the trio out of the room when their story was told, and
signaled to Peter to close the door again, when he took up his
interrupted tale.

"I was at the window, looking out, Nichols. I didn't expect him for a
couple of weeks anyway. I'd just about gotten my nerve back. But he got
the drop on me, Nichols. How he ever got into the room without my
hearin' him! I must have been in a trance. His shoes were off. The first
thing I know is a voice close at my ear and a gun in my ribs. I turned
quick--but my gun was in the table drawer. His face was close to mine
and I knew he meant business. If I'd 'a' moved he'd 'a' killed me. So I
put my hands up. There wasn't anything else to do. I thought I'd play
for time but he caught my glance toward the door and only laughed.

"'There ain't anybody comin', Mike,' he says. 'It's just you an' me.' I
asked him what he wanted and he grinned. 'You know,' he says. And with
his left hand he brought out a rope he had stuffed in his pocket. 'I'll
fix _you_ first. Then we'll talk,' he says. He was cool like he always
was. He caught a slip noose around my wrists before I knew it, twisted
the rope around me and threw me over on the floor. I tell you that man
is the devil himself."

"What then?"

"He made me give up the keys to the drawers in the safe--it was open
just like i