had
just climbed. He looked over the banisters down into the hollow
beneath. And there, marching up resolutely, was the figure of a tall,
veiled woman, and Spargo suddenly realized, with a sharp quickening of
his pulses, that for the second time that day he was beneath one roof
with Miss Baylis.

Spargo's mind acted quickly. Knowing what he now knew, from his
extraordinary dealings with Mother Gutch, he had no doubt whatever that
Miss Baylis had come to see Mr. Elphick--come, of course, to tell Mr.
Elphick that he, Spargo, had visited her that morning, and that he was
on the track of the Maitland secret history. He had never thought of it
before, for he had been busily engaged since the departure of Mother
Gutch; but, naturally, Miss Baylis and Mr. Elphick would keep in
communication with each other. At any rate, here she was, and her
destination was, surely, Elphick's chambers. And the question for him,
Spargo, was--what to do?

What Spargo did was to remain in absolute silence, motionless, tense,
where he was on the stair, and to trust to the chance that the woman
did not look up. But Miss Baylis neither looked up nor down: she
reached a landing, turned along a corridor with decision, and marched
forward. A moment later Spargo heard a sharp double knock on a door: a
moment after that he heard a door heavily shut; he knew then that Miss
Baylis had sought and gained admittance--somewhere.

To find out precisely where that somewhere was drew Spargo down to the
landing which Miss Baylis had just left. There was no one about--he had
not, in fact, seen a soul since he entered the building. Accordingly he
went along the corridor into which he had seen Miss Baylis turn. He
knew that all the doors in that house were double ones, and that the
outer oak in each was solid and substantial enough to be sound proof.
Yet, as men will under such circumstances, he walked softly; he said to
himself, smiling at the thought, that he would be sure to start if
somebody suddenly opened a door on him. But no hand opened any door,
and at last he came to the end of the corridor and found himself
confronting a small board on which was painted in white letters on a
black ground, Mr. Elphick's Chambers.

Having satisfied himself as to his exact whereabouts, Spargo drew back
as quietly as he had come. There was a window half-way along the
corridor from which, he had noticed as he came along, one could catch a
glimpse of the Embankment and the