'I'm talking to you, my friend. What's the betting that your letting them through that door doesn't turn out a hanging matter for you? I'll take short odds.' He turned to the Flyman. 'Let me through there. There's another way into where they are; I'll see if I can get at them. You stay here, in case they try to double. Cox is no good. I'll be even with him for this.' Mr Burton crossed to a door, which was on the other side of the little hall. Unlocked, it admitted him to the kitchen. From the kitchen he passed to another room, apparently where the servants slept. On the opposite side of this was still another door. He eyed it. 'If I remember rightly, that leads into her room.' The door was locked; the key was in the lock upon the other side. He stooped to see; it was in a position which prevented anything being visible. He rattled the handle; rapped with his knuckles at the panel, without result. All was silent. 'It is her room. I wonder what they're up to? They're very still. They can't--' He stopped, probably because the stillness of which he spoke was broken by a woman's cry--a mingling of surprise, anguish, fear. He retraced his steps towards the kitchen, whispering to himself two words,-- 'They have!' Taking the key from one side of the lock, replacing it in the other, he locked the door of the servants' room behind him. The key itself he pocketed. 'Except through the drawing-room, there's only this way out, so we've trapped you anyhow.' As if to make assurance doubly sure, he locked the door of the kitchen also. Again he pocketed the key. CHAPTER XVI THE FINDING OF THE RUBY AND THE LOCKING OF THE DOOR When Mr Burton returned to the drawing-room, he found that Mr Thomas Cox had been having a few words with the Flyman. That worthy jerked his thumb in the other's direction. 'Wants to sling his hook. Says he's had about enough of it.' 'Oh, he has, has he? Now, Cox, listen to me. It's through you we're here--' Interrupting, Mr Cox raised his hat and stick in a hasty disclaimer. 'Was there ever anything like that? It was your suggestion entirely. You said you could twist your lady friend round your finger--' 'Let's go a little further back, my Cox. You've told me--how many times?--that if I lose my uncle's money you'll send me to gaol. Not being anxious to go to gaol, I'm doing my best to get my uncle's money. So if it's not through you I'm here, I should like to know through whom it is.' 'That's different; you're entering on other matters altogether. You've committed--you know what you've committed; but it doesn't follow, because you've brought yourself within the reach of the criminal law, that I want to bring myself too.'