here as it fair breaks my heart to see."

He motioned toward the door of the music-room, and, stepping to it, I
saw that the inventory was already in progress. The man in charge of
it nodded to me, but I did not go in, for the sight was anything but
a pleasant one.

"The cabinet is in the room across the hall," I said to M. Armand,
and led the way through the ante-room into the room beyond.

Parks switched on the lights for us, and my companion glanced with
surprise at the heavy shutters covering the windows.

"We put those up for a protection," I explained. "We had an idea that
some one would try to enter. In fact, one evening we _did_ find a
wire connecting with the burglar-alarm cut, and, later on, saw some
one peering in through the hole in that shutter yonder."

"You did?" M. Armand queried quickly.

"Would you recognise the man, if you were to meet him again?"

"Oh, no; you see the hole is quite small. There was nothing visible
except a pair of eyes. Yet I might know them again, for I never
before saw such eyes--so bright, so burning. It was the night that
Godfrey and I were trying to find the secret drawer, and those eyes
gleamed like fire as they watched us."

M. Armand was gazing at the cabinet, apparently only half listening.