With a choking sound, Miss Childe got into the car.

"Half-past one," she said, as she slid into the driver's seat.

"Without fail." I raised my hat. "By the way, who shall I ask for?"

Miss Childe flung me a dazzling smile.

"I've no sisters," she said.

Moodily I returned to the house.

I entered the library to find that the others had retired, presumably to
dress for dinner. Mechanically I crossed to the tallboy, which we had so
fruitlessly surveyed, and began to finger it idly, wondering all the
time whether my dream was wanton, or whether there was indeed some
secret which we might discover. It did not seem possible, and yet....
That distant voice rang in my ears. "Measurements tell, measurements
tell. But they never do that." _What?_

A sudden idea came to me, and I drew out the second long drawer. Then in
some excitement I withdrew the first, and placed it exactly upon the top
of the second, so that I might see if they were of the same size. _The
second was the deeper by an inch and a half._

I thrust my arms into the empty frame, feeling feverishly for a bolt or
catch, which should be holding a panel in place at the back of where the
first drawer had lain. At first I could find nothing, then my right hand
encountered a round hole in the wood, just large enough to admit a man's