ay
to make it easily obtainable.

"I have advised you to trust nobody. I should have excepted Mr.
Trohm, but I do not think you will be given an opportunity to
speak to him. Remember that all depends upon your not awakening
suspicion. If, however, you wish advice or desire to make any
communication to me or the man secretly holding charge over
this affair in X., seek the first opportunity of riding into
town and go at once to the hotel where you will ask for Room 3.
It has been retained in your service, and once shown into it,
you, may expect a visitor who will be the man you seek.

"As you will see, every confidence is put in your judgment."

There was no signature to this--it needed none--and in the packet which
came with it was the whistle. I was glad to see it, and glad to hear
that I was not left entirely without protection in my somewhat hazardous
enterprise.

The events of the morning had been so unexpected that till this moment I
had forgotten my early determination to go to my room before any change
there could be made. Recalling it now, I started for the staircase, and
did not stop though I heard Hannah calling me back. The consequence was
that I ran full tilt against Miss Knollys coming down the hall with a
tray in her hand.

"Ah," I cried; "some one sick in the house?"

The attack was too sudden. I saw her recoil and for one instant hesitate
before replying. Then her natural self-possession came to her aid, and
she placidly remarked:

"We were all up to a late hour last night, as you know. It was necessary
for us to have some food."

I accepted the explanation and made no further remark, but as in passing
her I had detected on this tray of food supposed to have been sent up
the night before, the half-eaten portion of a certain dish we had had
for breakfast, I reserved to myself the privilege of doubting her exact
truthfulness. To me the sight of this partially consumed breakfast was
proof positive of there being in the house some person of whose presence
I was supposed to be ignorant--not a pleasant thought under the
circumstances, but quite an important fact to have established. I felt
that in this one discovery I had clutched the thread that would yet lead
me out of the labyrinth of this mystery.

Miss Knollys, who was on her way down-stairs, called Hannah to take the
tray, and, coming back, beckoned me toward a door opening into one of
the