Lambert, do you know?"

"He is all right now, and is in town."

"At his old rooms, I suppose. For how long? I want to see him."

"For an indefinite period. Garvington has turned him out of the
cottage."

"The deuce! What's that for?"

"Well," said Agnes, explaining reluctantly, "you see Noel paid no rent,
as Garvington is his cousin, and when an offer came along offering a
pound a week for the place, Garvington said that he was too poor to
refuse it. So Noel has taken a small house in Kensington, and Mrs. Tribb
has been installed as his housekeeper. I wonder you didn't know these
things."

"Why should I?" asked Miss Greeby, rather aggressively.

"Because it is Mr. Silver who has taken the cottage."

Miss Greeby sat up alertly. "Silver. Oh, indeed. Then that explains why
he asked me for leave to stay in the country. Said his health required
fresh air, and that London got on his nerves. Hum! hum!" Miss Greeby
bit the handle of her umbrella. "So he's taken the Abbot's Wood Cottage,
has he? I wonder what that's for?"

"I don't know, and I don't care," said Agnes restlessly. "Of course I
could have prevented Garvington letting it to him, since he tried to
blackmail me, but I thought it was best to see the letter, and to
understand his meaning more thoroughly before telling my brother about
his impertinence. Noel wanted me to tell, but I decided not to--in the
meantime at all events."

"Silver's meaning is not hard to understand," said Miss Greeby, drily
and feeling in her pocket. "He wants to get twenty-five thousand pounds
for this." She produced a sheet of paper dramatically. "However, I made
the little animal give it to me for nothing. Never mind what arguments
I used. I got it out of him, and brought it to show you."

Agnes, paling slightly, took the letter and glanced over it with
surprise.

"Well," she said, drawing a long breath, "if I had not been certain that
I never wrote such a letter, I should believe that I did. My handwriting
has certainly been imitated in a wonderfully accurate way."

"Who imitated it?" asked Miss Greeby, who was watching her eagerly.

"I can't say. But doesn't Mr. Silver--"

"Oh, he knows nothing, or says that he knows nothing. All he swears to
is that Chaldea found the letter in Pine's tent the day after his
murder, and before Inspector Darby had time to search. The envelope had
been destroyed, so we don't know if the letter was posted or delivered
by hand."

"If I had w