"Viner!" replied Millwaters. "Came peeping and perking along the street, took a glimpse of the premises and the adjacent purlieus, rang at Number 23, and was let in by--the party that came with Miss Wickham! Now, whatever can he be doing there, Mr. Perkwite?" "Whatever can any of them be doing there!" muttered Perkwite. "Viner! What business can he have in this place? It seems--by George, Millwaters," he suddenly exclaimed, "what if this is some infernal plant--trap--something of that sort? Do you know, in spite of what you say, I really think we ought to get hold of the nearest police and tell them--" "Wait, Mr. Perkwite!" counselled Millwaters. "Our governor is a pretty cute and smart sort, and he's vastly interested in this Miss Wickham; so Portlethwaite and he'll be on their way down here now, hot foot; and with help, too, if he thinks she's in any danger. Now, _he_ can go straight to that door and demand to see her, and--" "Why can't we?" interrupted Perkwite. "I'd do it! Lord, man, she may be in real peril--" "Not while Viner's in there," said Millwaters quietly. "I might possibly have gone and rung the bell myself, but for that. But Viner's in there--wait!" And Perkwite waited, chafing, at the corner of the dismal street, until a quarter of an hour had passed. Then a car came hurrying along and pulled up as Millwaters and his companion were reached, and from it sprang Mr. Carless, Lord Ellingham and two men in plain-clothes, at the sight of whom Perkwite heaved a huge sigh of intense relief. CHAPTER XXVII THE BACK WAY Viner was so sure that the sound which he had heard on Mrs. Killenhall's retirement was that caused by the turning of a key or slipping of a lock in the door by which he had entered, that before speaking to Miss Wickham he instantly stepped back and tried it. To his astonishment it opened readily, but the anteroom outside was empty; Mrs. Killenhall had evidently walked straight through it and disappeared. "That's odd!" he said, turning to Miss Wickham. "I distinctly thought I heard something like the snap of a lock, or a bolt or something. Didn't you?" "I certainly heard a sound of that sort," admitted Miss Wickham. "But--the door's open, isn't it?" "Yes--that is so," answered Viner, who was distinctly puzzled. "Yet--but then, all this seems very odd. When did you come down here?" "About an hour ago," replied Miss Wickham, "in a hurry." "Do you know why?" asked Viner. "To see a Dr. Martincole, who is to tell us something about Mr. Ashton," replied his fellow-sharer in these strange quarters. "Didn't Mrs. Killenhall ask you to come down for the same purpose, Mr. Viner?"