"I fear so," the inspector said, and taking me to the window showed me how it only looked out upon the roof of the next house and in such a position that the shouts of anyone confined there would never be heard. "They probably kept their victims here to extort money, and then when they had drained them dry they gave them their liberty. They went downstairs," he added grimly, "but they never gained the street." CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. BRINGS US FACE TO FACE. Pickering was essentially a man of action. "We must go down that hole and explore," he said determinedly. "We must know the whole of the secrets of this place before we go further. Edwards, just slip round to the station and get that rope-ladder we used in the Charlotte Street affair. Bring more rope, as it may be too short. And bring P.C. Horton with you. Tell him to take his revolver. Look sharp." "Very well, sir," replied the man, who clambered over the settle and down the stairs, leaving us there to await his return. Time passed slowly in that dark, gruesome house, and at each noise we halted breathlessly in expectation of the return of Parham or one of his friends. Returning to the room wherein Eric Domville had so gallantly defied his enemies, we resumed our search, and from beneath the couch the constable drew forth the square brown-paper parcel which Winsloe had obtained from the house called Keymer, and handed over to Parham. Pickering, in a trice, cut the string with his pocket-knife, and within found a small square wooden box nailed down. The jemmy soon forced it open, when there was revealed a large packet of papers neatly tied with pink tape, which on being opened showed that they were a quantity of negotiable foreign securities--mostly French. "The proceeds of some robbery, most certainly," declared Pickering, examining one after the other and inquiring of me their true character, he being ignorant of French. "I expect the intention is to negotiate them in the City," I remarked after I had been through them and roughly calculated that their value was about twenty thousand pounds. "Yes. We'll put them back and see who returns to fetch them. There's evidently a widespread conspiracy here, and it is fortunate, Mr Hughes, that you've been able at last to fix the house. By Jove!" the inspector added with a smile, "we ourselves couldn't have done better--indeed, we couldn't have done as well as you did." "I only hope that we shall discover what has become of my friend Domville," I said. "I intend that his death shall not go unavenged. He was in this room, I'll swear to that. I'd know his voice among ten thousand." "We shall see," remarked the officer, confidently. "First let us explore and discover how they got rid of their victims. I only hope nobody will return while we are below. If they do, Horton and Marvin will arrest them. We'll take Edwards down with us."