He stopped short, alert and intent, for a sound had come to his trained ears. Someone else had entered the vault. Quickly he stepped back into the shadow of the cages where he was hidden from view. There came a sound at the back of the room, a snarl, half human, half animal. But it was a man's figure that leaped across and snatched the great jewel away from the soft hands of Lady Margaret. Both the girl and her companions were too dazed by the sudden appearance of this uncouth being, his clothes covered with green mould, his hair dishevelled, his eyes glaring, to do anything but stare at him in utter astonishment. "It's mine at last!" he shrieked, and turned to go back the way he had come. But Cleek was in front of him and the entry closed. Noiselessly and swiftly he had worked his way round, and now stood looking at the man who but a few short hours back had had him trussed and bound in the wine-cellar on the other side of the house. "Not so fast, my friend!" he said. "Your circus must wait awhile. Up with your hands." He drew a revolver, and held it in front of the man's face. His shaking arms went slowly upward, his furious crimson countenance turned a sort of pale drab, he swayed a moment, tried to regain his balance, staggered, and then dropped to his knees. Mr. Narkom promptly snapped the bracelets upon his wrists. Cleek hauled him promptly into the circle of light. "Curse you!" snarled the man. "Why didn't I kill you the other day?" "Yes, why?" said Cleek, lightly, "a mistake on your part." Stooping down he took possession once more of the Purple Emperor. "No stone is worth imperilling your life for, my good John." A little cry broke from the blanched lips of Lady Margaret as she peered at the dishevelled figure. "Why, it is the butler, the man who watched over me alternately with Aggie in that awful cellar!" she cried. "It's the man who saw Bobby, and said----" Jennifer broke off abruptly, biting her lips in vexation at having thus betrayed herself, and Cleek, looking at her significantly, took up the thread. "Yes, the man you tried to bribe, Miss Jennifer, who ran away so quickly and disappeared in an empty field. I will show you how he did it. Dollops, bring him along, and follow me, people. There is still more to this astounding riddle." He switched on his heel, and passed through the door which he had opened behind them and across the vaulted kitchen, followed by his companions. Then, climbing up a few steps, they went through still another door which led them out into the open. "The moat," said Lady Margaret, softly, as she looked up at the blue sky, high above their heads. Cleek said nothing, but bending over twitched aside a little clump of green shrubs. It disclosed a dark opening like a cutting let right into the earth.