‘Ha, ha!—Listen to that, Mr Inspector.—If you had asked me the distance from here to New York, now. Great Pyramid, eh?’ The inspector, pencil and notebook in hand, was examining the fastenings of the window. ‘Very insecure, Captain Bowood,’ he said; ‘very insecure indeed. A burglar would make short work of them.’ Miss Brandon was eying him furtively. There was a puzzled look on her face. ‘I could almost swear it was Charley’s voice; and yet’—— ‘Come, come; you’ll frighten us out of our wits, if you talk like that,’ answered the Captain. ‘Many burglaries in this neighbourhood of late,’ remarked the inspector sententiously. ‘Just so, just so.’ This was said a little uneasily. ‘Best to warn you in time, sir.’ ‘O Charley, you naughty, naughty boy!’ remarked Miss Brandon under her breath. ‘Even I did not know him at first.’ ‘But if Mr Burglar chooses to pay us a visit, who’s to hinder him?’ asked the Captain. The inspector shrugged his shoulders and smiled an inscrutable smile. ‘You don’t mean to say that they intend to pay us a visit to-night? Come now.’ ‘Every reason to believe so, Captain.’ ‘But, confound it! how do you know all this?’ ‘Secret information. Know many things. Mrs Bowood keeps her jewel-case in top left-hand drawer in her dressing-room. Know that.’ ‘Bless my heart! How did you find that out?’ ‘Secret information. Gold chronometer with inscription on it hidden away at the bottom of your writing-desk. Know that.’ ‘How the’—— ‘Secret information.’ ‘O Charley, Charley, you artful darling!’—this _sotto voce_ from Miss Brandon. The Captain looked bewildered, as well he might. ‘This is really most wonderful,’ he said. ‘But about those rascals who, you say, are going to visit us to-night?’ ‘Give ’em a warm reception, Captain. Leave that to me.’ ‘Yes, yes. Warm reception. Good. Have some of your men in hiding, eh, Mr Inspector?’ ‘Half a dozen of ’em, Captain.’ ‘Just so, just so. And I’ll be in hiding too. I’ve a horse-pistol up-stairs nearly as long as my arm.’ ‘Shan’t need that, sir.’ ‘No good having a horse-pistol if one doesn’t make use of it now and then.’ ‘Half-a-dozen men—three inside the house, and three out,’ remarked the inspector as he wrote down the particulars in his book. ‘And I’ll make the seventh—don’t forget that!’ cried the Captain, looking as fierce as some buccaneer of bygone days. ‘If there’s one among the burglars more savage than the rest, leave him for me to tackle.’ ‘My poor, dear nunky, if you only knew!’ murmured Elsie under her breath. ‘Perhaps I had better lend you a pair of these, Captain; they might prove useful in a scuffle,’ remarked the inspector as he produced a pair of handcuffs from the tail-pocket of his coat. ‘The simplest bracelets in the world. The easiest to get on, and the most difficult to get off—till you know how. Allow me. This is how it’s done. What could be more simple?’