moved rapidly toward the window.

"You had a visitor here, Mr. Barnes," he said quickly - "a Mr.
Spencer Fitzgerald. Where is he?"

There was no one who could answer! Mr. Barnes was speechless between
the shock of the spilt port and the appearance of a couple of
uniformed policemen in his dining room. John Dory, the detective,
he knew well enough in his private capacity, but in his uniform,
and attended by policemen, he presented a new and startling
appearance! Mrs. Barnes was in hysterics, and Maud was gazing like
a creature turned to stone at the open window, through which little
puffs of fog were already drifting into the room. Adolphus, with
an air of bewilderment, was standing with his mouth and eyes wider
open than they had ever been in his life. And as for the honoured
guest of these admirable inhabitants of Daisy Villa, there was not
the slightest doubt but that Mr. Spencer Fitzgerald had disappeared
through the window!


Fitzgerald's expedition was nearly at an end. Soon he paused,
crossed the road to a block of flats, ascended to the eighth floor
by an automatic lift, and rang the bell at a door which bore simply
the number II. A trim parlourmaid opened it after a few minutes'
delay.

"Is Miss Emerson at home?" he asked.

"Miss Emerson is in," the maid admitted, with some hesitation, "but
I am not sure that she will see any one to-night."