e
correspondence before her. She heard the soft thud of the front door
closing, and rising she crossed the room rapidly and looked down through
the window to the street. She watched Fisher until he was out of sight;
then she descended to the hall and to the kitchen.

It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground room with
its vaulted roof and its great ranges--which were seldom used nowadays,
for Kara gave no dinners.

The maid--who was also cook--arose up as the girl entered.

"It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss," she smiled.

"I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale," said the girl
sympathetically.

"Lonely, miss!" cried the maid. "I fairly get the creeps sitting here
hour after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump."

She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of
unpainted wood.

"That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar--nobody's been in it but him. I know
he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother--who's a
policeman--taught me. I stretched a bit of white cotton across it an' it
was broke the next morning."

"Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in there," said the girl
quietly, "he has told me so himself."

"H'm," said the woman doubtfully, "I wish he'd brick it up--the same
as he has the lower cellar--I get the horrors sittin' here at night
expectin' the door to open an' the ghost of the mad lord to come
out--him that was killed in Africa."

Miss Holland laughed.

"I want you to go out now," she said, "I have no stamps."

Mrs. Beale obeyed with alacrity and whilst she was assuming a hat--being
desirous of maintaining her prestige as housekeeper in the eyes of
Cadogan Square, the girl ascended to the upper floor.

Again she watched from the window the disappearing figure.

Once out of sight Miss Holland went to work with a remarkable
deliberation and thoroughness. From her bag she produced a small purse
and opened it. In that case was a new steel key. She passed swiftly down
the corridor to Kara's room and made straight for the safe.

In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents. It was
a large safe of the usual type. There were four steel drawers fitted at
the back and at the bottom of the strong box. Two of these were unlocked
and contained nothing more interesting than accounts relating to Kara's
estate in Albania.

The top pair were locked. She was prepared for this contingency and a
secon