"Is the Duke a rich man?" I asked. Formby looked at me in astonishment. "What on earth makes you ask a question like that?" he demanded curiously. "Well, I really haven't any reason," I hastened to assure him. "I just wondered, that's all." "The Duke," he told me impressively, "is one of the richest men in England. He spends money in a princely fashion but he has never yet succeeded in spending half his income. What about a game of snooker--you and Cotton, too, if he likes? We are breaking up after this. Sir Charles wants to dance." I left Cotton there and went in search of Rose. I found her on the balcony in our own sitting room, looking down at the guests--strange, picturesque figures as they strolled about the moon-dappled lawn, listening to the music. "Maurice," she asked me, as I sank into a chair by her side, "have you found out yet what we are here for?" "I haven't the faintest idea," I replied. "The chief has been even less communicative than usual. It seems to have something to do with the jewels and that is all I know." "You don't think," she went on nervously, "that by any chance we are sent here to aid in any attempt to steal them?" "No, I don't think that," I assured her. "Where the chief stands sometimes I can't quite make up my mind, but I don't think a jewel robbery, even on such a scale as this, is quite in his line. If our presence here has anything to do with jewels at all, and I think it has," I added, dropping my voice, "I should say that we were here indirectly to aid their guardians." "Then why doesn't the Duke mention it to us?" she asked curiously. "It's beyond me," I confessed. She laid her hand upon my arm and drew me very near indeed. "Maurice," she whispered, "there's something wrong about Faraday." "Go on," I begged her. "Well, for one thing, then, what does he want with a ninety horse-power car, concerning which he hasn't said a word to any of us? I saw him driving it in the lower stretches of the park this morning." "Well, that might be any man's hobby," I replied. "What else?" "I found him poring over a map this afternoon," she continued. "I looked over his shoulder. It was a road map of Westmoreland, and I am perfectly certain that he was tracing out the road from here to the sea. It is only twenty miles." I nodded. "Well," I said, "let us assume, then, that Faraday means to make an attempt to steal the jewels, that he has a high-powered car in readiness, and a boat of some sort waiting by the sea. I dare say that part of it might be managed all right. It's a desolate coast, the road to it lies over a mountain range, and he could easily start from a place where there is no telephone or telegraph. But--it's the robbery itself that seems to me so impossible. I can't conceive how any one could get at the Duke's key, and, having got it, how they could pass the man on duty at the door, to say nothing of leaving the Castle afterwards."