"That chloroform is horrible stuff," complained Maud, sinking into a chair. "Have you seen the inspector?" said Tait, giving his niece very little sympathy for her wan looks. "Yes; I have told him all I know." "Perhaps you will repeat what you have told him to your uncle, Miss Ellis," remarked Walker, still standing very stiff and very proudly. "He has accused me of getting the key from you to rob the strong-room, and swears that I have buried the jewels somewhere in the garden." "That is absurd," said Maud, looking at her uncle, while a red spot of colour burned on either pale cheek. "I don't believe that you have anything to do with the matter." "Then what did you mean by addressing Walker as you did, when you revived in the gallery?" demanded Mr. Tait sharply. "I simply said, 'Oh, George, you!'" said the girl quietly; "and that because I felt glad he was there to help me." "He didn't help you in the least," remarked Tait grimly. "He would have had I asked him," she retorted. "Would you not, Mr. Walker?" "Certainly." "It's not George this time, then," muttered the stockbroker. "Well, Maud, perhaps you will tell me what you were doing in the gallery." Maud's eyes sought those of the man she loved, but she replied without hesitation. "I'll tell you what I did not tell the police, uncle. The inspector believes that I came down because I heard a noise." "Like Walker here." "He did not come down for that reason." Tait looked at George with triumph in his eye. "I thought not," he said. "If he said that he did, he said so to shield me," pursued Miss Ellis, and looked gratefully at the confused young man. "What do you mean by that, Maud?" asked Tait tartly. "I made an appointment with George in the picture-gallery at three in the morning, as I wished to help him to marry Lesbia Hale." "Why, I thought you loved Walker yourself!" cried the astonished stockbroker. "So I did--so I do," breathed Miss Ellis, drooping her sandy head. "But, to my mind, love means sacrifice. George--for I have the right to call him so now--George would not have been happy with me, as he loved Lesbia Hale, so I arranged to give him up to her, and to make things right with her father. For that reason I waited for him in the gallery. There I was suddenly pounced upon, and a handkerchief soaked in chloroform was clapped over my mouth. I daresay the person who did it, stole the key from the chain round my neck, and opened the strong-room to steal the jewels. But I knew nothing from the moment I became insensible until I revived to find you all standing round me. That is the story I have told the inspector, save that I kept quiet my appointment with George." "Then you believe him to be innocent," said the stockbroker, confounded by the frankness of this story. Maud arose indignantly. "The man I love can never be guilty," she cried.