With a swift gesture, she turned and fled. She had been nervous to start with, but Smeaton's steady and penetrating gaze seemed to have scared her out of her wits. The detective chatted for a moment or two with Grant, but made no comment upon the strange visitor. Still, it struck him as a curious thing, as one more of the many mysteries of which this house was so full. Would the young woman come back to-morrow, he wondered? Five minutes later Sheila and her lover arrived. They had spent the best part of the morning in each other's company, and had lingered long over their lunch. But Wingate was loth to part from her, and insisted upon seeing her home. She was puzzled, too, at the advent of this dark-haired young woman. "Oh, how I wish I had been a few minutes earlier," she cried. "I shall worry about it all night." "Strange things seem to happen every day," grumbled Smeaton. "A very mysterious thing happened at the corner of this street last night." Then he told them briefly of the midnight move from Forest View, of his dinner with Varney, and how they had seen Mrs Saxton in the taxi-cab in Coventry Street; of the taxi-driver's story that he had driven her to the corner of Chesterfield Street, where she had got out, and dismissed the cab. "But surely she was not alone," cried Sheila. "A man was with her, but the cab passed too rapidly for us to get a look at him," replied Smeaton evasively. After all, it was only a suspicion, he could not be positive. He paused a second, and went on hesitatingly. "I can't imagine what her motive could be in coming so near. I came round to-day because I had an idea that she might have called here on some pretext." "But, if she had done so, of course I should have rung you up," said Sheila quickly. "Well, I could have been sure of that too, if I had thought it out." Smeaton's manner was strangely hesitating, it seemed to them, not knowing that he was only revealing half of what was in his mind. "I hardly know why I came at all. I think the case is getting on my nerves. Well, I won't keep you any longer. Let me know if that young woman calls again, and if her visit concerns me in any way." He left, and when he had gone Sheila turned to her lover. "Mr Smeaton was very peculiar to-day, wasn't he, Austin? He gave me the impression of keeping something back--something that he wanted to tell and was afraid." Austin agreed with his well-beloved. There was certainly something mysterious about the great detective that afternoon. Meanwhile Smeaton walked back to his office, more puzzled and baffled than ever. Why on earth had Mrs Saxton and her companion driven to Chesterfield Street? And what had become of the other inmates of Forest View? CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. THE SECRET PICTURE.