"I have something to tell you of more importance than Inspector Mitchell's veiled insinuations," she said, speaking rapidly to cover her change of topic. "Just after the Inspector's departure I was standing here by this table," indicating it as she spoke, "when the sound of voices reached me and I heard Oscar say: 'I'se done looked an' looked, an' I tell yo' ole Miss never left no sech papers.' And a woman's voice replied: 'Please, please keep up your search, Oscar. I'll give you more than I promised--a hundred dollars more.'" Rodgers threw away his cigarette and stared at Kitty. "Who was the woman?" he demanded. "I do not know." Kitty rose and walked over to the Dutch door. "I tried to light the library lamp and wasted valuable seconds hunting for matches. When I finally got the lamp lighted, I found that I was alone in the library and the voices had come through this panel," laying her hand on it as she spoke. "I dashed outside but Oscar and his companion had disappeared in the darkness." Rodgers followed her to the Dutch door, his face expressing both astonishment and deep attention. "Have you no idea who the woman was?" he asked. "Hasn't Oscar told you her name and why she was bribing him?" "Oscar," Kitty paused and looked carefully about the library. "Oscar, according to his wife, took the three o'clock train to Front Royal this afternoon." "He did _what_?" shouted Rodgers, then at her startled look, he added more quietly, "Do you mean that Oscar has left Washington?" "So Mandy told me." Rodgers considered Kitty in silence.... Oscar a runaway--the red coat practically destroyed by fire--the I.O.U.-- Kitty was commencing to wonder at the prolonged silence when Rodgers spoke. "At what hour did you overhear Oscar's conversation with the unknown woman?" he asked. "About five o'clock." Rodgers stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I should say that there was a nigger in the wood-pile," he said softly. "You are quite sure it was Oscar talking to the woman." "Absolutely positive." "Did you recognize the woman's voice?" Kitty shook her head. "Her voice haunts me still," she said. "But I cannot place it. The whole affair bewilders me. I do not know what to think, what to conjecture. Our Oscar and Mandy, my aunt's faithful old servants, in league against me? Has some one bribed them to lie and steal--and with what object?" Rodgers did not reply at once. Suddenly he reached over and, pressing the catch, slid the panel back and forth as Inspector Mitchell had done several hours previously. His action reminded Kitty of the incident. "That panel seems to fascinate you men," she exclaimed. "Inspector Mitchell spent fully ten minutes commenting upon its well oiled hinges and its possible use." "Its use?" Rodgers' voice was of the carrying quality, and it sounded distinctly through the open panel to a figure crouching in the shadow of the house. "Has the panel been used for any special purpose?" "No, it is purely ornamental."