Mattock had a little Joan Whose soul was blushing poor, And everywhere lamb Mattock went His Joan went on before. Mr. Teal was not a great poet, but he had a wonderful knack of getting a stranglehold on axioms. "Funny that Jimmy never occurred to me," he said. "Let's take another look at that flat." A novel lay on one chair, and when Storm picked it up to read the title a thin yellow envelope fell out. It was addressed to J.N. Mattock, and the postmark showed that it had been mailed in Putney at 2 p.m. the previous day. Storm smoothed put the slip of expensive creamy notepaper which it contained. Raegenssen having disappeared, the office can probably dispense with your services for a few hours. You and Sands will take the Torbay Limited from Paddington on the morning you receive this. You will go to Torquay and stay at the Spa Hotel. You will return to London by the noon express the next day. £15 is enclosed for your expenses. The signature was the device of the Alpha Triangle. Storm passed the letter over to Teal, and when the detective had read it he pursed his lips. "He's the sort of snake who would have an alibi handy," was Mr. Teal's sour comment. The voice they had heard over the telephone was certainly that of a man--but whose? Mattock's? Blaythwayt's? Teal could arrive at no plausible solution. And an odd dozen little Triangles had slithered through their fingers that night, winning clear on the blindest, most hopeless bluff that had ever been put up in the history of New Scotland Yard. The detective was anything but satisfied with his evening's work, and proceeded to vent his spleen on the unhappy Joe. "Who told you to come butting in here?" he wanted to know. "I'll tell you, Joe, you dillytanty bloodhounds rile me. Now, just you warble me that little fairy tale I asked you for--and put in an opening chorus saying why you come rubing round this manor at twenty to midnight." "Really, there's no need for you to be so offensive, Teal," Blaythwayt protested miserably. "I happened to be in court when Mattock was brought up after the Triangle got Mecklen away from the station--I go round the police courts when I've got any time to spare. It's the best method of seeing Life in the Raw." Joe's tone suggested the suppression of nameless horrors witnessed in the metropolitan courts of summary jurisdiction. "And I'm interested in this case, as you know, so I shadowed Mattock home. Then I had to hurry away, but I wanted to ask him a few questions, so I came along to-night." "What questions?" Blaythwayt waggled a podgy hand. "Material for Writing," he explained unctuously. "One should strive for Accuracy. I wanted to know what it felt like to be set upon by two scoundrels, how it was to be up before a magistrate, and so on. I have never been before a magistrate, nor have I ever been molested by armed desperados, and so I resolved to get my sensations at least at second hand."