"They won't discover much--depend upon it," remarked the naval officer, who, as he strolled at his friend's side, presented the ideal type of the keen, British naval officer. "Dick has been the victim of a very carefully-prepared plot. That is my firm belief. I've been making some inquiries at the Grand Hotel, and learn that Dick came over from Norwich on his motor-cycle at nine o'clock yesterday morning for some purpose, and idled about Mundesley and the neighbourhood all the day. The head-waiter at the hotel knew him, for he had often lunched there. But yesterday he evidently came here with some fixed purpose, for he seemed to be eagerly expecting somebody, and at last, a little before two o'clock, a young lady arrived by the motor-bus from Cromer. They describe her as a neat, dark-haired, good-looking young person, rather well-dressed--and evidently a summer visitor. The pair walked about the village, and then went down to the beach and sat upon deck-chairs to chat. They returned to the hotel at half-past three and had tea together, _tete-a-tete_, in a small sitting-room. The waiter tells me that once, when he went in, suddenly, she was standing up, apparently urging him to act in opposition to his own inclinations. Her attitude, he says, was one of unusual force, it being evident that Dick was very reluctant to give some promise she was endeavouring to extract from him. She left again by the motor-bus for Cromer just after four." "Ah! There you are! The woman!" exclaimed the owner of Keswick Hall, with a smile. "I thought as much." "I don't think she had anything to do with the affair," said Barclay. "The police this morning obtained a detailed description of her--just as I have done--and they are now searching for her in Cromer, Runton, and Sheringham, believing her to be staying somewhere along this coast. She was dressed in a pale blue kit of a distinctly seaside cut, so the police are hoping to find her. Perhaps she doesn't yet know of the tragic fate that has befallen poor Dick." "I wonder who the girl can be? No doubt she'd be able to make a very interesting statement--if they could only discover her." "I think she left Cromer last night," Noel Barclay suggested to his companion. "She would, if she were in any way implicated. Perhaps she has already gone!" "No, I don't agree. I believe she is still in ignorance." "What, I wonder, was the motive for their meeting here--in this quiet, out-of-the-world little place?" asked Goring. "If he wanted to see her, he might have motored to wherever she was staying, and not have brought her over here in a motor-bus. No, it was a secret meeting--that's my opinion--and, as it was secret, it probably had some connection with the tragedy which afterwards occurred."