s I need all I can get. You were
with Rita tonight. What happened? Where is she?"

"Heaven knows where she is!" cried Gray. "I left her here with Pyne
shortly after seven o'clock."

He paused, fixing his gaze upon the face of Brisley, whose shifty eyes
avoided him and who was licking his lips in the manner of a dog who has
seen the whip.

"Why," said Gray, "I believe you are the fellow who has been following
me all night for some reason."

He stepped toward the foxy little man but:

"Never mind, Gray," interrupted Irvin. "I was to blame. But he was
following my wife, not you. Tell me quickly: Why did she come here?"

Gray raised his hand to his brow with a gesture of bewilderment.

"To consult this man, Kazmah. I actually saw her enter the inner room, I
went to get a cab, and when I returned the door was locked."

"You knocked?"

"Of course. I made no end of a row. But I could get no reply and went
away."

Monte Irvin turned, a pathetic figure, to the Inspector who stood beside
him.

"We may as well proceed, Inspector Whiteleaf," he said. "Mr. Gray's
evidence throws no light on the matter at all."

"Very well, sir," was the reply; "we have the warrant, and have given
the usual notice to whoever may be hiding inside. Burton!"

The Sergeant stepped forward, placed the leather bag on the floor,
and stooping, opened it, revealing a number of burglarious-looking
instruments.

"Shall I try to cut through the panel?" he asked.

"No, no!" cried Monte Irvin. "Waste no time. You have a crowbar there.
Force the door from its hinges. Hurry, man!"

"It doesn't work on hinges!" Gray interrupted excitedly. "It slides to
the right by means of some arrangement concealed under the mat."

"Pass that lantern," directed Burton, glancing over his shoulder to
Gunn.

Setting it beside him, the Sergeant knelt and examined the threshold of
the door.

"A metal plate," he said. "The weight moves a lever, I suppose, which
opens the door if it isn't locked. The lock will be on the left of the
door as it opens to the right. Let's see what we can do."

He stood up, crowbar in hand, and inserted the chisel blade of the
implement between the edge of the door and the doorcase.

"Hold steady!" said the Inspector, standing at his elbow.

The dull metallic sound of hammer blows on steel echoed queerly around
the well of the staircase. Brisley and Gunn, standing very close
together on the bottom step of the stair to the third flo