Sorry dear shan't be home when you return sent Torquay important business back to-morrow. JIMMY. Storm folded the flimsy and handed it back. "I see. The Apex must have thought you were in town." Storm whistled out a long jet of smoke. "Who knew you were going?" "Only Jimmy," she replied, and then once more she was on her high horse. "But I'm not here to be cross-examined. I take it you've been searching my flat. That being so, I'd like to see your warrant." There was an interlude of silence. Joe had succeeded in retiring to the ample background afforded by Mr. Teal. The detective, having had the guiltiness of his conscience materialised, chewed stolidly and was tongue-tied. Arden coaxed his cigarette to the other corner of his mouth and met the girl's imperious gaze levelly. "We haven't got one," he said. "Like Mr. Blaythwayt, Teal and I were going to pay a little call on Jimmy, only we got in the wrong door and found a little mothers' meeting in progress. We were in time for the agenda, and stopped to--er--vote upon the motion." "Don't be funny," she snapped. "I'm as serious as double pneumonia," he assured her gravely. "Joan, don't pretend to be dense!" "I'm only Joan to my friends, Arden," she cut him, but he refused to be high-handed. "I'm your friend, Joan," he said imperturbably. "Whether you call me Captain Arden or plain Arden doesn't bother me any, because I'm not talking for myself--there's every mite of every law in this country, and all the power behind the Law, concentrated in my two hands! You may or may not be as innocent as you seem. We'll argue that later. But come a little tour of inspection and learn things!" He led her into the outer sitting-room, and she followed impatiently. He pointed to the chairs drawn up round the long table, and the marks of recent occupation in the ash-trays and scattered cards. He exhibited the loud-speaking telephone, and then indicated the wire which ran into her private flat. He took her back and traced for her its route across the floor, under the rugs, to the ornate bookcase. She did no more than cast a bored glance at each of the damning beacons of incrimination he picked out for her enlightenment. Her lips were tightened up, her face a mask, her bearing inscrutable. Then he made her look at the bookcase. She obeyed pettishly, and turned to him again with a mutinous tilt to her small chin. "Well?" she said. "Is that all?" "Not quite! You've seen the loud-speaking telephone and you've seen the tapped wires. You've seen how anyone knowing the secret of that bookcase could speak through to the other room. Teal and I arrived in that other room in time to hear two men detailed to murder our one and only Inspector Teal. We think those orders were given from your flat. So we're healthily curious!" "Well?" "Anything but! It isn't every day you hear the order given for your own execution!" She faced him boldly. "Do you think I was the speaker?"