"You shall pay for this," he said furiously. "You know too much. That anybody should dare to stand there before me and say what you have said to me----" He seemed to be incapable of further speech. The man called Reggie bent over Beatrice and whispered something in her ear. She caught the words mechanically---- "Give me what you have in your pocket," he said, "and I will see you through. Don't hesitate--what are a few paltry diamonds compared with your life? For that is in danger, and far greater danger than you know. Pass those stones over, quick." But Beatrice was not going to be bullied like that. Above all things--the knowledge stood out before her that Berrington was not far off. She had only to call for assistance, and he would be by her side at once. The girl's eyes dilated, but not with fear as the man imagined. "I am not so helpless as you imagine," Beatrice said. "And you will never get what you want unless you resort to violence. Now you understand me." The man smiled. He had an eye for beauty and courage, rogue though he was. But he had to reckon with Sartoris, who seemed to be recovering his self-possession. "What are you muttering about?" he asked suspiciously. "Ah, what was that? Did you hear it?" The trio stood listening, quivering with excitement, tense in every limb. With a loud cry Beatrice flung herself at the door and beat upon it madly. CHAPTER XXXIII Field stood in the office of the Inland Revenue at Wandsworth with a feeling that he had got on the right track at last. And yet this discovery, which he had no reason to doubt, opened up the strangest possibilities before him. He was face to face with a theory that staggered him so greatly that he could not speak for a moment. And yet he wondered why the idea had not occurred to him before. "I suppose that you have not made any mistake?" he suggested. The clerk was properly indignant. He was not there for the purpose of making mistakes, besides, he had all the particulars entered in his books. "So that you can see for yourself," he said. "Look here, if you doubt me. The entries tally absolutely with the figures you have on that slip of paper. If there is anything wrong----" "There is something very wrong indeed," Field admitted, "but that has nothing to do with you. Do you do a large business in that kind of stamped paper?" "Well, rather, though not so large as we did. You see, those stamped deeds are exclusively used by solicitors; practically, every legal document is a stamped paper. But, nowadays, a good many lawyers get their deeds engrossed on plain paper and send them to me to be forwarded to Somerset House for the stamping." "I see," Field said, thoughtfully. "In that case, you would have less difficulty in recognizing anybody who purchased a parchment that was already stamped? I wonder if you recognized the man who bought the one we are talking about?"