"Why do you bring me into it?" he complained. "I'm standing by the colonel to the last. And I agree with him that we ought to know what Lollie told the police." "She's told them nothing," said Crewe. "She isn't that kind of girl. Besides, what does she know?" "She knows a lot," said the colonel. "I'll put a supposition to you. Suppose she's Jack o' Judgment?" Crewe looked at him in astonishment. "That's an absurd suggestion," he said. "How could she be?" "I'll tell you how she could be," said the colonel; "she has never been with us when Jack made his appearance--you'll grant that?" Crewe thought for a moment. "There you're wrong," he said; "she was with us the night Jack first came." The colonel was taken aback. A theory which he had formed was destroyed by that recollection. "So she was. That's right, she was there! I remember he insulted her. But I'm certain she's seen him since; I am certain she's been working hand-in-glove with him since. Who was the Jack who went to Yorkshire?" It was Crewe's turn to be nonplussed. "Jack o' Judgment must be working with a pal," the colonel went on triumphantly, "and I suggest that that pal is Lollie Marsh." "That's a lie!" The colonel looked up quickly. "Who said that?" he demanded harshly. Crewe shook his head. "It was not me," he said. "Was it you, Selby?" "Me?" said the astonished Selby. "No, I thought it was you who said it. It came from your end of the table, colonel." The colonel got up. "There's something wrong here," he said. "I've got it!" It was Pinto who spoke. "Did you notice anything peculiar about the voice, colonel?" he asked eagerly. "I did, the first time I heard it, and I've been wondering how I'd heard it before, and just now it has struck me. It was a gramophone voice!" "A gramophone voice?" "It sounded like a voice on a speaking machine." The colonel nodded slowly. "Now you come to mention it, I think you're right," he said; "it sounded familiar to me. Of course, it was a gramophone voice." They made a careful search of the apartment, taking down every book from the big shelf in one of the alcoves, and turning the leaves to discover the hidden machine. With this idea to guide them the search was more complete than it had been before. Every drawer in the desk was taken out, every scrap of furniture was minutely examined, even the massive legs of the colonel's writing table were tapped. Crewe took no part in the search, but watched it with a slight smile of amusement, and the colonel turning, detected this. "What the devil are you grinning about?" he said. "Why aren't you helping, Crewe? You've got an interest in this business." "Not such an interest that I'm going to fool around looking for a gramophone voice that goes off at appropriate intervals," said Crewe. "Doesn't it strike you that it would have to be a pretty smart gramophone to chip in at the right moment?"