Once more they crossed the stone hall and entered the room into which they had first been shown. On the threshold Peter stopped short and listened. It seemed to him that from somewhere upstairs he could hear the sound of a woman's sobs. He turned to Bernadine. "The Baroness is not unwell, I trust?" he asked. "The Baroness is as well as she is likely to be for some time," Bernadine replied grimly. They were all in the study now. Upon a table stood a telephone instrument. Bernadine drew a small revolver from his pocket. "Baron de Grost," he said, "I find that you are not quite such a fool as I thought you. Some one is ringing up for you on the telephone. You will reply that you are well and safe, and that you will be home as soon as your business here is finished. Your wife is at the other end. If you breathe a single word to her of your approaching end, she shall hear through the telephone the sound of the revolver shot that sends you to hell." "Dear me," Peter protested, "I find this most unpleasant. If you'll excuse me, I don't think I'll answer the call at all." "You will answer it as I have directed," Bernadine insisted. "Only remember this, if you speak a single ill-advised word, the end will be as I have said." Peter picked up the receiver and held it to his ear. "Who is there?" he asked. It was Violet whose voice he heard. He listened for a moment to her anxious flood of questions. "There is not the slightest cause to be alarmed, dear," he said. "Yes, I am down at the High House, near St. Mary's. Bernadine is here. It seems that those reports of his death were absolutely unfounded. Danger? Unprotected? Why, my dear Violet, you know how careful I always am. Simply because Bernadine used once to live here, and because the Baroness was his friend, I spoke to Sir John Dory over the telephone before we left, and an escort of half a dozen police followed us. They are about the place now, I have no doubt, but their presence is quite unnecessary. I shall be home before long, dear. Yes, perhaps it would be as well to send the car down. Anyone will direct him to the house--the High House, St. Mary's, remember. Good-bye!" Peter replaced the receiver and turned slowly round. Bernadine was smiling. "You did well to reassure your wife, even though it was a pack of lies you told her," he remarked. Peter shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.