"That is one of the reasons why I say 'no,'" he returned. "If she had intended to go away she would have arranged to take more than a coat and skirt. Besides, Eva Wilkinson is evidently not a fool. The only person one can imagine her going away with is Cayley, and why should she go away with him? If she married him before she was twenty-one, she forfeited a million of money; well, she knew the penalty. Even if she would not wait until she was of age, there is still no conceivable reason why she should run away. We are forced, therefore, to the assumption that she was kidnaped." "I have never doubted it," I answered. "I confess to some uncertainty," said Quarles, "but these letters put a new complexion on the affair, I admit. Some one is out for money, Wigan, and that fact is--" He stopped short as a servant entered the room saying that I was wanted on the telephone. I had left word that I was going to Chelsea. I was informed that Sir Michael Lavory had telephoned for me to go and see him at once. He said he had received a letter which was of the gravest importance. "Similar to ours, no doubt," said the professor when I repeated the message to him. "We will go at once, Wigan, but I do not think there is anything to be done until the scoundrels have made a further move. It won't be many hours before they do so." In the taxi he did not continue his negative arguments, and he was not restless, as he usually was when upon a keen scent. No doubt he had a theory, but I was convinced he was not satisfied with it himself. Sir Michael, who had a flat in Kensington, was not alone. A young man was with him, and Sir Michael introduced Mr. Edward Cayley. "He has just arrived--came in ten minutes after I had received this letter." Cayley's presence there was rather a surprise, but I noted that his appearance did not correspond with the woman's description of the young man who had asked for a box of matches. "I came as soon as I heard the news about Miss Wilkinson," Cayley said in explanation. "How did you hear it?" Quarles asked. "There was a paragraph in _Le Gaulois_. I left Paris at once and came to Sir Michael, thinking it a time when any little disagreement between us would be easily forgotten." "You can quite understand that I agree with Mr. Cayley," Sir Michael said, "especially in the face of this letter." "I can guess the contents of it," I said. "We have had letters too." But I was mistaken. This communication was scrawled in the same printed letters, was signed in the same way, but its purport was entirely different.