Of course it was natural that Cayley should want to get rid of his guests as soon as the tragedy was discovered. He would want this for their own sake as well as for his. But he had been a little too quick about suggesting it, and about seeing the suggestion carried out. They had been bustled off as soon as they could be packed. The suggestion that they were in his hands, to go or stay as he wished, could have been left safely to them. As it was, they had been given no alternative, and Miss Norris, who had proposed to catch an after-dinner train at the junction, in the obvious hope that she might have in this way a dramatic cross-examination at the hands of some keen-eyed detective, was encouraged tactfully, but quite firmly, to travel by the earlier train with the others. Antony had felt that Cayley, in the tragedy which had suddenly befallen the house, ought to have been equally indifferent to her presence or absence. But he was not; and Antony assumed from this that Cayley was very much alive to the necessity for her absence. Why? Well, that question was not to be answered off-hand. But the fact that it was so had made Antony interested in her; and it was for this reason that he had followed up so alertly Bill’s casual mention of her in connection with the dressing-up business. He felt that he wanted to know a little more about Miss Norris and the part she had played in the Red House circle. By sheer luck, as it seemed to him, he had stumbled on the answer to his question. Miss Norris was hurried away because she knew about the secret passage. The passage, then, had something to do with the mystery of Robert’s death. Miss Norris had used it in order to bring off her dramatic appearance as the ghost. Possibly she had discovered it for herself; possibly Mark had revealed it to her secretly one day, never guessing that she would make so unkind a use of it later on; possibly Cayley, having been let into the joke of the dressing-up, had shown her how she could make her appearance on the bowling-green even more mysterious and supernatural. One way or another, she knew about the secret passage. So she must be hurried away. Why? Because if she stayed and talked, she might make some innocent mention of it. And Cayley did not want any mention of it. Why, again? Obviously because the passage, or even the mere knowledge of its existence, might provide a clue. “I wonder if Mark’s hiding there,” thought Antony; and he went to sleep. CHAPTER X. Mr. Gillingham Talks Nonsense Antony came down in a very good humour to breakfast next morning, and found that his host was before him. Cayley looked up from his letters and nodded. “Any word of Mr. Ablett—of Mark?” said Antony, as he poured out his coffee. “No. The inspector wants to drag the lake this afternoon.” “Oh! Is there a lake?” There was just the flicker of a smile on Cayley’s face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.