The taxi was held up at the juncture of the Embankment and Blackfriars Bridge, and was held up again for a different reason in Queen Victoria Street. Suddenly there was a clang-clang of gongs, and all traffic drew to one side to allow the passage of a flying motor fire-engine. Another and another followed in succession. "A big fire," said Whiteside. "Or it may be a little one, because they get very panicky in the City, and they'll put in a divisional call for a smoking chimney!" The cab moved on, and had crossed Cannon Street, when it was again held up by another roaring motor, this time bearing a fire escape. "Let's get out of the cab; we'll walk," said Tarling. They jumped out, and Whiteside paid the driver. "This way," said Tarling. "We'll make a short cut." Whiteside had stopped to speak to a policeman. "Where's the fire, constable?" he asked. "St. Mary Axe, sir," was the policeman's reply. "A big firm of chartered accountants--Dashwood and Solomon. You know them, sir? I'm told the place is blazing from cellar to garret." Tarling showed his teeth in an unamused grin as the words came to him. "And all the proof of Milburgh's guilt gone up in smoke, eh?" he said. "I think I know what those books contained--a little clockwork detonator and a few pounds of thermite to burn up all the clues to the Daffodil Murder!" CHAPTER XXII THE HEAVY WALLET All that remained of the once stately, if restricted, premises of Messrs. Dashwood and Solomon was a gaunt-looking front wall, blackened by the fire. Tarling interviewed the Chief of the Fire Brigade. "It'll be days before we can get inside," said that worthy, "and I very much doubt if there's anything left intact. The whole of the building has been burnt out--you can see for yourself the roof has gone in--and there's very little chance of recovering anything of an inflammable nature unless it happens to be in a safe." Tarling caught sight of the brusque Sir Felix Solomon gazing, without any visible evidence of distress, upon the wreckage of his office. "We are covered by insurance," said Sir Felix philosophically, "and there is nothing of any great importance, except, of course, those documents and books from Lyne's Store." "They weren't in the fire-proof vault?" asked Tarling, and Sir Felix shook his head. "No," he said, "they were in a strong-room; and curiously enough, it was in that strong room where the fire originated. The room itself was not fire-proof, and it would have been precious little use if it had been, as the fire started inside. The first news we received was when a clerk, going down to the basement, saw flames leaping out between the steel bars which constitute the door of No. 4 vault." Tarling nodded. "I need not ask you whether the books which Mr. Milburgh brought this morning had been placed in that safe, Sir Felix," he said, and the knight looked surprised. "Of course not. They were placed there whilst you were in the office," he said. "Why do you ask?"