hink concludes the enquiry," he said, as he walked over to
the fireplace and, leaning against the mantelpiece, he began to fill
his pipe. "Unless," he added, turning to Mr. Llewellyn John, "you
would like to see Cressit."

The Prime Minister looked across at Sir Lyster and then at Lord
Beamdale. Both shook their heads.

"What we should like, Sage," said Mr. Llewellyn John, "is a little
information as to what has been happening."

With great deliberation Malcolm Sage proceeded to light his pipe.
When it was drawing to his entire satisfaction, he turned to Mr.
Llewellyn John and, with the suspicion of a fluttering at the
corners of his mouth, remarked:

"I hope you have not been inconvenienced about the telephone."

"We could get no reply from the exchange," said Sir Lyster, "and the
wire to the Admiralty is out of order."

"I had to disconnect you after I left this morning," said Malcolm
Sage quietly. "My chauffeur swarmed up one of the standards.
Incidentally he wrecked an almost new pair of breeches."

"They'll have to go in the Naval Estimates," cried Mr. Llewellyn
John, who was feeling almost jovial now the tension of the past
twenty-four hours had been removed.

"From the first," proceeded Malcolm Sage, "it was obvious that this
theft was planned either at the Admiralty or at the War Office."

"That is absurd!" cried Sir Lyster with heat, whilst Lord Beamdale
leaned forward, his usually apathetic expression of indifference
giving place to one of keen interest.

"I accepted the assurance that only three people in this house knew
of the existence of the document," Malcolm Sage proceeded, as if
there had been no interruption. "There was no object in any of those
three persons stealing that to which they had ready access."

Lord Beamdale nodded his agreement with the reasoning.

"Therefore," continued Malcolm Sage, "the theft must have been
planned by someone who knew about the document before it came here,
and furthermore knew that it was to be here at a certain time. To
confirm this hypothesis we have the remarkable circumstances that
the blank paper substituted for the original document was, in
quality and the number of sheets, identical with that of the
document itself."

"Good," ejaculated Lord Beamdale, himself a keen mathematician.

Mr. Llewellyn John and Sir Lyster exchanged glances.

"It was almost, but not quite, obvious that the exchange had been
effected by a woman."

"How obvious?" enqu