"If Tenson gets hold of that and learns anything, which by the way I don't think he can, from that paper, my life won't be worth a cent; neither will that of Lillian's. I might not care for my own life, but I care a great deal for hers. I want to have a consultation as to what is best to be done to save her from these devils." "Well, you can depend upon my saying nothing, Dan. It seems serious. Tell me all about your discoveries." Halliday did so, starting with his visit to the cinematograph with Lillian, and his recognition of Mrs. Jarsell in the animated picture. Then he recounted his journey to Hillshire, and what he had learned from Mrs. Pelgrin and her nephew. "So on the face of it," concluded Dan earnestly, "I don't see how Mrs. Jarsell could have got to London. She didn't go by train and could not have gone by motor. Yet, I'm sure she was on the Blackheath grounds." "It is a puzzle," admitted Freddy, drawing his brows together, "but go on; you have something else to tell me." "Rather," and Dan detailed all that had taken place from the time he received Penn's invitation to meet him in the Bakerloo Tube to the moment he arrived at his rooms again in the four-wheeler. "What do you make of it all, Freddy?" asked Halliday, when he ended and relighted his pipe. "Give me time to think," said Laurance, and rose to pace the room. For a time there was a dead silence, each man thinking his own thoughts. It was Dan who spoke first, and said what was uppermost in his mind. "Of course my hands are tied," he said dismally, "I dare not risk Lillian's life. The beasts have killed her father, and Durwin and Penn, all because they got to know too much. They may kill Lillian also and in the same mysterious way." "But she knows nothing," said Freddy anxiously. "No. But I do, and if I speak--well, then you know what will happen. Queen Beelzebub saw that I cared little for my own life, so she is striking at me through Lillian. 'The girl he loves!' says that message. Clever woman Mrs. Jarsell; she has me on toast." "But, my dear fellow, you can't be sure that your masked demon is Mrs. Jarsell, since you did not see her face, or recognize her voice." "I admit that the mask concealed her features, and I believe that she spoke through an artificial mouthpiece to disguise the voice. Still, there is the evidence of her possessing the perfume, which plays such a large part in the gang's doings. Also her appearance in the animated picture, which proves her to have been on the Blackheath ground." "But Mrs. Pelgrin and her nephew declare positively that she could not have been there." "Quite so, but Mrs. Pelgrin and her nephew may be paid to keep silence," retorted Dan in a worried tone; "then Miss Armour, if you remember, prophesied that I should have a wonderful offer made to me. If I accepted I should marry Lillian and enjoy a large fortune. Well, an offer in precisely the same words was made to me, on condition that I joined the gang."