upraised eyebrows, the cigarette smoke
curling from her lips.

"And it was for a luncheon such as this," she protested, "that I
wore my new muslin gown and came all the way from the country. I
expected compliments at least. Perhaps I even hoped," she whispered,
leaning a little towards him, with a smile upon her lips,--half
mirthful, half provocative,--"that I might have turned for a moment
that wonderfully hard head of yours."

Arnold rose abruptly to his feet.

"You treat men as though they were puppets," he muttered.

"And you speak of puppets," she murmured, "as though theirs was a
most undesirable existence. Have you never tried to be a puppet,
Arnold?"

He stepped a little further back still and gripped the back of the
chair, but she kept close to him.

"I am to have no other answer from you, then, but this foolery?" he
demanded, roughly.

"Why, yes!" she replied, graciously. "I have an answer ready for
you. You are so abrupt. Listen to what I propose. We will go
together to your office and see whether it is true that Mr.
Weatherley has not returned. If he has really disappeared, and I
think that anything which I can tell you will help, perhaps then I
will do as you ask. It depends a great deal upon what you find in
those papers. Shall we go now, or would you like to stay here a
little longer?"

"We will go at once," he said firmly.

She sighed, and passed out of the door which he had thrown open.

"It is I who am a heroine," she declared. "I am coming down to
Tooley Street with you. I am coming to brave the smells and the fog
and the heat."

He handed her into the car. He had sufficiently recovered his
self-control to smile.

"In other words," he remarked, "you mean to be there when I open the
safe!"

CHAPTER XXVII

THE LETTERS IN THE SAFE

The arrival of Arnold, accompanied by Mrs. Weatherley, created a
mild sensation in Tooley Street. Mr. Jarvis, fussier than ever, and
blinking continually behind his gold-rimmed spectacles, followed
them into the private office.

"You have heard nothing of Mr. Weatherley?" Arnold asked.

"Not a word," the cashier answered. "We have rung up several more
places and have tried the hospitals again. We were all hoping that
Mrs. Weatherley had brought us some news."

She shook her head.

"Mr. Weatherley left home exceedingly early this morning," she
announced. "I believe that it was before half-past seven. Except
that he called at the house in Ham