It was typical of that period of excitement, when the name of the Crimson Circle was on every tongue, that sensation should follow sensation. But probably no incident created so much excitement as that which, in scrawling headlines, greeted Derrick Yale as, sitting in bed sipping his tea, he read the newspaper the following morning! Thalia Drummond had escaped! People escape from prison in works of fiction; they have been known to make a temporary get-away from dread Dartmoor, but never before in the history of the prison service had a woman escaped from Holloway. And yet the wardress unlocking the door of Thalia Drummond’s cell in the morning found it empty. It took a great deal to shock Derrick Yale, but the news temporarily paralysed him. He read the account of the escape word by word, and in the end he was as mystified as ever. But there it was in cold print, officially admitted, and communicated to the early morning press by the Government with unnatural haste. “Owing to the unusual importance of the prisoner, and the character of the offence alleged against her, extraordinary precautions were taken to guard her. The patrol which usually visits the ward in which her cell was situated, was doubled, and instead of hourly, half-hourly visits were paid by the officers on duty. It is not customary to look into every cell on these occasions, but at three o’clock this morning the wardress--Mrs. Hardy--looked through the observation hole and saw the prisoner was there. At six o’clock when the cell door was opened, Drummond was missing. The bars of the window were intact, and the door had not been tampered with. “A search of the prison grounds showed no trace of her footsteps, and it is almost impossible that she could have escaped over the wall. It is equally impossible that she could have left by the ordinary means, since it would have necessitated her passing through six separate doors, none of which had been forced, or through the gate-keeper’s lodge, which is occupied throughout the night. “This new proof of the Crimson Circle’s omnipotence and extraordinary powers is very disconcerting, coming, as it does, at a moment when the lives of Cabinet Ministers are threatened by this mysterious gang.” Yale glanced at the clock. It was half-past eleven. And then he looked at the newspaper and saw that his servant had brought him an early edition of one of the evening papers. He was out of bed in a second and, not waiting for breakfast, rushed off to head-quarters, to find Inspector Parr in a very good humour, considering all the circumstances. “But this is incredible, Parr, it is impossible! She must have friends in the prison!” “That is my idea entirely,” said Parr. “I told the Commissioner in the identical words that she must have friends in the prison. Otherwise,” he said after a pause, “how did she get out?”