y had all gone.
It is what I told you before. Things which I do not understand
depress me, and behold! I have found proof this morning of a further
significance in Wolff's sudden departure."

"Proceed," Dominey begged.

"I learned this morning, entirely by accident, that Mr. Pelham's servant
was either mistaken or willfully deceived me. Wolff did not accompany
your butler to the station."

"And how did you find that out?" Dominey demanded.

"It is immaterial! What is material is that there is a sort of
conspiracy amongst the servants here to conceal the manner of his
leaving. Do not interrupt me, I beg! Early this morning there was a
fresh fall of snow which has now disappeared. Outside the window of the
room which I found locked were the marks of footsteps and the tracks of
a small car."

"And what do you gather from all this?" Dominey asked.

"I gather that Wolff must have had friends in the neighbourhood," Seaman
replied, "or else--"

"Well?"

"My last supposition sounds absurd," Seaman confessed, "but the whole
matter is so incomprehensible that I was going to say--or else he was
forcibly removed."

Dominey laughed softly.

"Wolff would scarcely have been an easy man to abduct, would he," he
remarked, "even if we could hit upon any plausible reason for such a
thing! As a matter of fact, Seaman," he concluded, turning on his heel
a little abruptly as he saw Rosamund standing in the avenue, "I cannot
bring myself to treat this Johann Wolff business seriously. Granted that
the man was a spy, well, let him get on with it. We are doing our job
here in the most perfect and praiseworthy fashion. We neither of us have
the ghost of a secret to hide from his employers."

"In a sense that is true," Seaman admitted.

"Well, then, cheer up," Dominey enjoined. "Take a little walk with us,
and we will see whether Parkins cannot find us a bottle of that old
Burgundy for lunch. How does that sound?"

"If you will excuse me from taking the walk," Seaman begged, "I would
like to remain here until your return."

"You are more likely to do harm," Dominey reminded him, "and set
the servants talking, if you show too much interest in this man's
disappearance."

"I shall be careful," Seaman promised, "but there are certain things
which I cannot help. I work always from instinct, and my instinct is
never wrong. I will ask no more questions of your servants, but I know
that there is something mysterious about the sudden d