to a chair. "I don't think it can
be here."

"Nor I," said I. "I think we've looked everywhere."

"Yes," said Berry. "There's only the cesspool left. We can drag that
before lunch, if you like, but I should prefer one more full meal before
I die."

"Boy! Boy!"

Somewhere from behind closed doors a sweet excited voice was calling.

I sprang to the door.

"Yes, Adele, yes?" I shouted.

A moment later my lady sped down a passage and into the hall.

"Get the car quick. I've found Nobby."

"Where?" we yelled.

"That man Bason's got him."

Her announcement momentarily deprived us of breath. Then we all started,
and in the next two minutes sufficient was said about the retired
music-hall proprietor to make that gentleman's pendulous ears burst into
blue flame.

Again want of breath intervened, and Adele besought us to make ready the
car.

We explained vociferously that Jonah had taken the Rolls and would be
back any minute. Whilst we were waiting, would she not tell us her tale?

Seating herself upon the arm of a chair, she complied forthwith.

"None of you seemed to suspect him, and, as I'm usually wrong, I decided
to say nothing. But last night I asked a Boy Scout where he lived.
Curiously enough, the boy had a brother who was a gardener in Bason's
employ. That made me think. I asked him whether I could have a word with
his brother, and he told me he lived at a cottage close to his work, and
was almost always at home between nine and half-past in the morning.

"When he came home this morning, I was waiting for him. He seemed a nice
man, so I told him the truth and asked him to help me. Thorn--that's his
name--doesn't like Bason a bit, and at once agreed that he was quite
capable of the dirtiest work, if any one got in his way. He hadn't, he
said, seen Nobby, but that wasn't surprising. If the dog was there he'd
probably be in the stables, and with those Thorn has nothing to do.

"Bason doesn't keep horses, but he uses one of the coach-houses as a
garage. The chauffeur seems to be rather worse than his master. He's
loathed by the rest of the staff, and, while he and Bason are as thick
as thieves, neither trusts the other an inch.

"The first thing to do, obviously, was to find out if Nobby was there.
Everything was always kept locked, so I determined to try the 'Blondel'
stunt--yes, I know a lot of English History--and try and make Coeur de
Lion speak for himself.

"First we synchronized our watches.