"Ay, my friend," Ralph replied, "you did. But not quite the same way." "Because I did not know that fortune had placed the medium so close at hand. Where are the bees?" Geoffrey was listening intently. Up to now he had failed to understand why his story had moved Ralph so profoundly. And what could the bees have to do with it? Yet Mrs. May had mentioned bees. "They are in two hives outside the morning-room window," said Ralph. "The bees are Vera's pets, and they thrive for the most part along the flower borders of the terrace. They are ordinary bees." "In the ordinary bar-frame hives of course?" "Oh, yes, they are quite up to date. You can see the insects working and all that kind of thing. The hives can be moved." "I suppose they are a nuisance occasionally?" Tchigorsky asked. "Yes," Geoffrey smiled. "We have all been stung now and again." Tchigorsky appeared to be satisfied on that head. He smoked a whole cigarette while he revolved a plan in his mind. "It is necessary to get the whole family out of the way for a time," he said slowly. "It will be necessary to do so without delay. Unless I am greatly mistaken, the mischief has already been done. Ralph, can you induce your father and the whole family to go away for a time--say till after dark?" "Perhaps," Ralph replied. "But not without explaining, and it is impossible to do that. But Geoffrey might manage it. Unless he does manage it one or more of us will pay the penalty before daybreak." "I will do anything you desire," Geoffrey cried eagerly. "Then go to your grandfather and get him to arrange a picnic over to Alton Keep. It is a perfect day, and it will be possible to remain out till dark, returning to a late supper. I know the suggestion sounds absurd--childish in the circumstances--but it will have to be done. Say that there is a great danger in the castle which has to be removed. Say that nobody is to know anything about it. Go." Geoffrey went at once. He found the head of the family in the library trying to interest himself in a book. He looked up as Geoffrey entered, and a slight smile came over his worn face. There were two people in the house who could do anything with him--Geoffrey and Vera. "You look as if you wanted something," he said. "I do," Geoffrey replied. "I want you to do me a great favor." "It is granted--granted on the principle that we make the last hours of the condemned criminal as comfortable as possible." "Then I want you to get up a picnic to-day." Rupert Ravenspur dropped his glasses on the table. He wondered if this was some new kind of danger, a mysterious form of insanity, brought about by the common enemy.