It was some minutes before he could rise, his great chest heaving painfully, and by that time he knew that the unknown had gone. He reeled across the hall, bent almost double, and snapped on the lights in his library. Every drawer and cupboard had been hurriedly rifled, and their contents strewn on the floor, but he gave the damage scarcely a glance. From among the wreckage he retrieved a flashlight and went back to the study, switching on the lights in the hall on his way. He went over every inch of the room in search of anything his late visitor might have lost in the struggle, and it was quite early in his hunt that he saw something winking up at him from the carpet. It was a little silver triangle. CHAPTER IX SPECIMENS OF JOURNALESE Storm trod on the self-starter. The powerful engine woke to life with no more than a whispering purr. Like a long shadow the Hirondel slid out of the cart track and down the deserted road between ghostly files of street lamps. He switched on his lights as he turned into the Finchley Road. It had been a merry evening, and not without those thrilling moments after which his heart yearned; and it had left him with things to ponder. He wanted to know the reason for Snooper Brome's appearance in the home of Oscar Raegenssen, and he wanted to know what the hurriedly lowered blind in an upstairs room had hidden from him, but it was typical of the man that he accepted Susan's arrival as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "Lucky you found me," he remarked. "Now I can take you along to the Elysion, and we can consume bacon and eggs." He made no effort to discover the reason for her presence, but she enlightened him of her own accord. "It's all Uncle Joe's fault," she explained. "I'd been to dinner with him, and--you've had some experience of him--you know what a bloodthirsty little man he is, and this Triangle business is meat and strong drink to him. He was lecturing me about it for hours after I ought to have gone home, and he kept dragging Raegenssen into the discussion and then forgetting what he was going to say about him. Then he told me Raegenssen lived near by, and promptly added that women shouldn't get mixed up with crime. So, of course, I had to butt in. Did you kill Snooper?" She asked the question so dispassionately that Storm laughed. "No," he said mildly. "Not to-night. It wasn't--er--expedient. One of these days I shall probably have to, but that'll keep. How much did you see?" "You saw me." "And," said Storm in pained accents, "you saw the police charging up the garden, and you didn't rally round to assist the getaway? Susan, you're going off!" She smiled, and laid a cool hand on his. "Old chap," she said, "that would have been unpardonable. You knew what you were doing, and you don't need lessons in looking after yourself. If I'd thought you wanted help, I'd have come----" "Like old times," said Storm, and raised her hand to his lips.