There was the bare chance that Beaumanoir might have turned up during his absence, and General Sadgrove covered the ground at his best pace; but he was destined to find no such pleasant surprise in store for him. Forsyth met him, as he mounted the terrace steps, with the significant inquiry whether he had discovered anything. "Nothing, and Azimoolah has gone too," was the reply. "Where are the women?" "In the morning-room; they are not alarmed as yet, only a little uneasy—especially Leonie." "She would be, but we needn’t mind her," the General rejoined, brusquely. "What do you make of Ziegler’s understudy?" "I cannot make much of her," replied Forsyth. "I am inclined to agree with you that she is as much in a fog as the rest of us." The General grunted, and proposed that they should at once go up and rummage Beaumanoir’s room for clues, a course which they instantly adopted. Since the charcoal episode their host had resolutely refused to occupy "the Duke’s room," preferring to that grim state apartment a smaller chamber in the corridor where most of the guests were accommodated. Access was gained to it by two different doors, one leading to it through a dressing-room, the other directly opening into it. They chose the latter as being the nearest, and as they entered distinctly heard the swish of a silk skirt in the dressing-room, followed by the soft closing of the dressing-room door. Alert and bristling like an angry terrier, the General stepped quickly back into the corridor—just in time to see another door gently shut a little farther on. "You were right, laddie," he said, rejoining Forsyth. "She has been here before us on the same errand. Mrs. Talmage Eglinton is as much bewildered as we are by the turn of events, and she has been trying to arrive at conclusions from an inspection of the Duke’s room." They began their "rummage," which was made easier for them by the fact that the housemaids had not yet paid their morning visit to the room. The bed had certainly been slept in, and there were also indications that the occupant had made a perfunctory sort of toilet afterwards. There was fresh lather on a shaving-paper, and soapy water in the wash-basin, to show that Beaumanoir had been able to attend to his person. "Whatever has happened to him didn’t happen here," said the General with decision. "He left this room a free agent, at all events. The question then arises, When and why did he leave it, and has he left the confines of the park?" "He must have made a cold toilet," said Forsyth. "See, here is the hot water which was brought up for him at eight o’clock this morning, and also the water for his tub."