The son had reached the landing, and De Costa was passing through the doorway to follow the waiting servant. At Tillizinni’s words he turned. “You?” he asked. Tillizinni bowed. “I came searching for a certain document stolen from the Chinese Embassy,” he said. “Would you allow your son to wait in another room whilst I tell you something?” De Costa paused irresolutely. He walked to the door. “You may wait downstairs for me,” he said. He came back and closed the door after him. Tillizinni strolled to the other end of the room, his hands in his pockets, his dark brow puckered in a thoughtful frown. He strolled back to meet De Costa. “Won’t you sit down?” he said, but the old man made no move. “As I said, I went to your house--burgled it if you will--it is one of the crimes which I permit myself. I came to seek a certain dossier containing a document which I had every reason to believe was in your possession.” “You found nothing?” said the old man steadily. “I found nothing,” agreed Tillizinni. “At any rate, I did not find that which I set forth to find. What I did discover, however, was rather interesting. It was that you had at least three visitors on that night, and that they had all been Chinamen, and that one, and the most important of these”--he spoke slowly--“was quite in ignorance as to the visit of the others.” Not a muscle of the old man’s face moved. “Go on,” he said. Tillizinni had picked up a fountain pen from the desk and was pointing his remarks with little flourishes which were peculiarly his. “Well,” he began, and stopped with an exclamation of apology, for from the waving fountain-pen a few drops had fallen upon the white shirt-front of the visitor. He stepped forward impulsively with his handkerchief and wiped them clean. De Costa was in some doubt as to whether he should reject such civility. Then Tillizinni resumed. “The presence of the two men was rather a mystery. I found no indication that they had stayed any time, and I gathered by the fact that you had written very elaborate directions, that they had come to consult you as to the best method of getting out of England.” Still the man made no sign. “You had carefully written--possibly on two half-sheets of notepaper, since I found the corresponding halves with the tell-tale address upon them in the wastepaper basket--a string of names of places written in English and blotted on a fairly clean pad. Since those names occur twice I gathered there was some slight difference between them, and I gather that you had advised them to take different routes. “One went by way of Ostend to Petrograd, Moscow, and Tomsk, and _viâ_ the Trans-Siberian Railway; the other was apparently advised to leave by way of Liverpool on a Chinese cargo boat which sailed this morning. This much I gathered from the fact that you had given him the name of an agent in Liverpool to whom he could apply. That also you very indiscreetly blotted.” The old man’s face was livid now.