He watched anxiously as the machine swung into the main road. Still he waited, his head bent. Two minutes went by, and the faint sound of a motor-horn, a long blast and a short, and he sighed. “They’re clear of the danger zone,” he said. _Plop!_ He saw the flash, heard the smack of the bullet as it struck the door, and his hand stiffened. There was a thudding sound—a scream of pain from a dark corner of the mews and the sound of voices. Leon drew back into the yard and bolted the door. “He had a new kind of silencer. Oberzohn is rather a clever old bird. But my air pistol against their gun for noiselessness.” “I didn’t expect the attack from that end of the mews.” Manfred was slipping a Browning back to his pocket. “If they had come from the other end the car would not have passed—I’d like to get one of those silencers.” They went into the house. Poiccart had already extinguished the passage light. “You hit your man—does that thing kill?” “By accident—it is possible. I aimed at his stomach: I fear that I hit him in the head. He would not have squealed for a stomach wound. I fear he is alive.” He felt his way up the stairs and took up the telephone. Immediately a voice said, “Number?” “Give me 8877 Treasury.” He waited, and then a different voice asked: “Yes—Scotland Yard speaking.” “Can you give me Mr. Meadows?” Manfred was watching him frowningly. “That you, Meadows? . . . They have shot Leon Gonsalez—can you send police reserves and an ambulance?” “At once.” Leon hung up the receiver, hugging himself. “The idea being——?” said Poiccart. “These people are clever.” Leon’s voice was charged with admiration. “They haven’t cut the wires—they’ve simply tapped it at one end and thrown it out of order on the exchange side.” “Phew!” Manfred whistled. “You deceived me—you were talking to Oberzohn?” “Captain Monty and Lew Cuccini. They may or may not be deceived, but if they aren’t, we shall know all about it.” He stopped dead. There was a knock on the front door, a single, heavy knock. Leon grinned delightedly. “One of us is now supposed to open an upper window cautiously and look out, whereupon he is instantly gunned. I’m going to give these fellows a scare.”