She had heard no sound at all, and claimed that she was a light sleeper, which, in fact, she was not. When she had gone to sleep the candle was burning. Examining this, Dick saw that it would not have been alight for more than an hour. There were two burnt matches in the tray, which meant that the candle had been extinguished once and lit again. “I wonder she didn’t wake me; I’m usually a light sleeper.…” Dick left the girl explaining to the watcher who had been on guard outside the door. “It was her voice, of course, that the patrol man heard in the dark. I blame myself that I didn’t jump at that idea.” “I’d like to keep all the blame!” said Dick bitterly. “Oh, God! it doesn’t bear thinking about!” He went away on a solitary search; none saw him slip through the back of the house, and he moved under cover of the river bank. When he returned, after an absence of two hours, Puttler told him that there was a message from the Home Office awaiting him. That institution had rung up twice. Dick got through after a wait, and learned that he was talking to an important under-secretary. “Could you run up to London for an hour?” “Is it necessary?” asked Dick, and he explained with all rapidity the happenings of the night. “I’m afraid you had better see us as soon as you possibly can. In view of all the circumstances you cannot come too soon.” With a curse Dick hung up the ’phone, and this time he took Harry’s big two-seater, a car that his brother had only used a dozen times, but the use of which he had steadfastly refused to anybody else. Just as he was leaving he recalled a resolution he had made in the night; he ran upstairs into his room, and, bolting the door, opened a locked drawer of his dressing chest and took out something which he put carefully in his bag. That must be removed from Fossaway Manor as soon as possible, he thought. He put the bag in the boot of the car and sent the machine flying down the drive. Midway between Horsham and Dorking, a motorist, coming from the opposite direction by another route, shot at a fast pace from a forked road right across his path. Dick jammed on the brakes and the big car skidded halfway round, struck the concrete curb with a thud, but no damage was done, and he went on, with a glare at the goggled driver of the machine at fault that was murderous. He did not hear the cover of the dickey snap open, nor did he see the brown bag leap up and roll over on to the sidewalk. But the man in the other car saw all this through his big goggles, and, restarting his machine, brought it to the curb. And there and then, Fabrian Gilder discovered the secret of the Black Abbot! LI