“What’s that?” rapped out Cleek, sitting up sharply. His interest had been trapped, just as Mr. Narkom knew that it would. “Vanished from a glass-room into which people were looking at the time? And yet nobody saw the manner of his going, do you say?”

“That’s it precisely. But the most astonishing part of the business is the fact that, whereas the porter can bring at least three witnesses to prove that he showed the boy into that glass-room, and at least one to testify that he heard him speak to the occupant of it, the two watchers who were looking into the place at the time are willing to swear on oath that he not only did not enter the place, but that the room was absolutely vacant at the period, and remained so for at least an hour afterward. If that isn’t a mystery that will want a bit of doing to solve, dear chap, then you may call me a Dutchman.”

“Hum-m-m!” said Cleek reflectively. “How, then, am I to regard the people who give this cross testimony—as lunatics or liars?”

“Neither, b’gad!” asseverated Narkom, emphatically. “I’ll stake my reputation upon the sanity and the truthfulness of every mother’s son and every father’s daughter of the lot of them! The porter who says he showed the boy into the glass-room I’ve known since he was a nipper—his dad was one of my Yard men years ago—and the two people who were looking into the place at the time, and who swear that it was absolutely empty and that the lad never came into it——Look here, old chap, I’ll let you into a bit of family history. One of them is a distant relative of Mrs. Narkom—an aunt, in fact, who’s rather down in the world, and does a bit of dressmaking for a living. The other is her daughter. They are two of the straightest-living, most upright, and truly religious women that ever drew the breath of life, and they wouldn’t, either of ’em, tell a lie for all the money in England. There’s where the puzzle of the thing comes in. You simply have got to believe that that porter showed the boy into that room, for there are reliable witnesses to prove it, and he has no living reason to lie about it; and you have got to believe that those two women are speaking the truth when they say that it was empty at that period and remained empty for an hour afterward. Also—if you will take on the case and solve at the same time the mystery attending the disappearance of both father and son—you will have to find out where that boy went to, through whose agency he vanished, and for what cause.”

“A tall order that,” said Cleek with one of his curious, one-sided smiles. “Still, of course, mysteries which are humanly possible of creation are humanly possible of solution, and—there you are. Who is the client? Miss Larue? If so, how is one to be sure that she will not again call a halt, and spoil a good ‘case’ before it is halfway to completion?”

“For the best of reasons,” replied Narkom earnestly. “Hers is not the sole ‘say’ in the present case. Added to which, she is now convinced that her suspicions in the former one were not well grounded. The truth has come out at last, Cleek. She stopped all further inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of her brother because she had reason to believe that the elder Mr. Trent had killed him for the purpose of getting possession of those jewels to tide over a financial crisis consequent upon the failure of some heavy speculations upon the stock market. She held her peace and closed up the case because she loves and is engaged to be married to his son, and she would have lost everything in the world sooner than hurt his belief in the honour and integrity of his father.”

“What a ripping girl! Gad, but there are some splendid women in the world, are there not, Mr. Narkom? What has happened, dear friend, to change her opinion regarding the elder Mr. Trent’s guilt?”

“The disappearance of the son under similar circumstances to that of the father, and from the same locality. She knows now that the elder Mr. Trent can have no part in the matter, since he is at present in America, the financial crisis has been safely passed, and the son—who could have no possible reason for injuring the lad, who is, indeed, remarkably fond of him, and by whose invitation he visited the building—is solely in charge and as wildly anxious as man can be to have the abominable thing cleared up without delay. He now knows why she so abruptly closed up the other case, and he is determined that nothing under heaven shall interfere with the prosecution of this one to the very end. It is he who is the client, and both he and his fiancÉe will be here presently to lay the full details before you.”

“Here!” Cleek leaned forward in his chair with a sort of lunge as he flung out the word, and there was a snap in his voice that fairly stung. “Good heavens above, man! They mustn’t come here. Get word to them at once and stop them.”

“It wouldn’t be any use trying, I’m afraid, old chap; I expect they are here already. At all events, I told them to watch from the other side of the way until they saw me enter, and then to come in and go straightway to the public tearoom and wait until I brought you to them.”

“Well, of all the insane——Whatever prompted you to do a madman’s trick like that? A public character like Miss Larue, a woman whom half London knows by sight, who will be the target for every eye in the tearoom, and the news of whose presence in the hotel will be all over the place in less than no time! Were you out of your head?”

“Good lud! Why, I thought I’d be doing the very thing that would please you, dear chap,” bleated the superintendent, despairingly. “It seemed to me such a natural thing for an actress to take tea at a hotel—that it would look so innocent and open that nobody would suspect there was anything behind it. And you always say that things least hidden are hidden the most of all.”

Cleek struck his tongue against his teeth with a sharp, clicking sound indicative of mild despair. There were times when Mr. Narkom seemed utterly hopeless.

“Well, if it’s done, it’s done, of course; and there seems only one way out of it,” he said. “Nip down to the tearoom as quickly as possible, and if they are there bring them up here. It’s only four o’clock and there’s a chance that Waldemar may not have returned to the hotel yet. Heaven knows, I hope not! He’d spot you in a tick, in a weak disguise like that.”

“Then why don’t you go down yourself and fetch them up, old chap? He’d never spot you. Lord! your own mother wouldn’t know you from Adam in this spiffing get-up. And it wouldn’t matter a tinker’s curse then if Waldemar was back or not.”

“It would matter a great deal, my friend—don’t deceive yourself upon that point. For one thing, Captain Maltravers is registered at the office as having just arrived from India after a ten years’ absence, and ten years ago Miss Margaret Larue was not only unknown to fame, but must have been still in pinafores, so how was he to have made her acquaintance? Then, too, she doesn’t expect to see me without you, so I should have to introduce myself and stop to explain matters—yes, and even risk her companion getting excited and saying something indiscreet, and those are rather dangerous affairs in a public tearoom, with everybody’s eyes no doubt fixed upon the lady. No, you must attend to the matter yourself, my friend; so nip off and be about it. If the lady and her companion are there, just whisper them to say nothing, but follow you immediately. If they are not there, slip out and warn them not to come. Look sharp—the situation is ticklish!”

And just how ticklish Mr. Narkom realized when he descended and made his way to the public tearoom. For the usual four o’clock gathering of shoppers and sightseers was there in full force, the well-filled room was like a hive full of buzzing bees who were engaged in imparting confidences to one another, the name of “Margaret Larue” was being whispered here, there and everywhere, and all eyes were directed toward a far corner where at a little round table Margaret Larue herself sat in company with Mr. Harrison Trent engaged in making a feeble pretence of enjoying a tea which neither of them wanted and upon which neither was bestowing a single thought.

Narkom spotted them at once, made his way across the crowded room, said something to them in a swift, low whisper, and immediately became at once the most envied and most unpopular person in the whole assembly; for Miss Larue and her companion arose instantly and, leaving some pieces of silver on the table, walked out with him and robbed the room of its chief attraction.

All present had been deeply interested in the entire proceeding, but none more so than the tall, distinguished looking foreign gentleman seated all alone at the exactly opposite end of the room from the table where Miss Larue and her companion had been located; for his had been the tensest kind of interest from the very instant Mr. Narkom had made his appearance, and remained so to the last.

“Count Irma has told,” said Narkom. “It’s all out at last and ... I know now. I’m to lose you.”