"Miss Forbes, I assure you--"

"Wait till I've finished, and you will not be under the necessity of
telling me any polite fibs. You men are all alike. You think the giddy
feminine brain is not fitted to cope with mysteries, and that is where
you are utterly mistaken. A woman's intuition often peers deeper than
a man's logic. I--"

"Do forgive me," broke in Theydon despairingly, "but I am really most
anxious to know how and where I can get a word with your father. I
would not be so rude as to interrupt you if I hadn't the best of
excuses. Tell me where to find him now, and I promise to give you a
call immediately afterward."

"He's at the Home Office."

"At the Home Office!"

Some hint of utter bewilderment in Theydon's tone must have reached
the girl's alert ear.

"Ah! Touché!" she cried. "Now will you be good and tell me why Dad
should receive a little ivory skull by this morning's post?"

Theydon knew that he paled. His very scalp tingled with an
apprehension of some shadowy yet none the less affrighting evil. But
he schooled himself to say, with a semblance of calm interest:

"What exactly do you mean, Miss Forbes?"