In order to release it into Asta's room he had only to move the small piece of cut panel in the back of its place of imprisonment, and, glad to escape, the thing would pass through, as no doubt it had done on the night when my well-beloved had been attacked. To recall it, Shaw had only to whistle. The spider knew the call. After the attack upon Asta the scoundrel had evidently lost the reptile in the confusion, and disliking the light it had found refuge on the small cretonne canopy fixed against the ceiling, over the head of the bed. Knowledge that its bite had not proved fatal, as in Nicholson's case, and that Asta might recover and describe what she had seen, together with the fact that he had been unable to induce his pet to return to him, had terrified him, and he had escaped. Quickly I telephoned to the police in Northampton, and very soon two officers came out on bicycles, and to them we made a statement. Then, an hour later, a hue-and-cry was flashed across the wires for the assassin's arrest. Slowly--very slowly--Asta recovered consciousness, but I was not allowed to see her, nor was she allowed, indeed, to speak. Yet the knowledge that my beloved would again be given back to life was, in itself, all-sufficient for me. I had at least solved two points in that amazing mystery of avarice and cunning. I had discovered the cruel ingenious manner in which Guy Nicholson had been killed because of the knowledge he had accidentally gained, and I had also established the fact that Shaw intended that poor Asta should succumb. But what was the motive of this double crime? That point was, in itself, the most puzzling point of all. CHAPTER THIRTY. THE THIRD OF NOVEMBER. Through the whole of the following day I remained at the Hall, but as may be imagined the consternation was great when it became known to the servants, and through them to the countryside, that Mr Harvey Shaw, the eminently respectable county magistrate, was being searched for by the police. Curious how quickly popularity disappears at the first breath of scandal. The very persons who had been loudest in Shaw's praises were now the first to hint at dark things and declare that they had all along suspected him of leading a double life. Sir George remained, but the two local practitioners went forth to do their daily rounds. Asta had greatly improved, and though ordered not to refer to the tragic events of the past few hours, I was allowed to see her for five minutes about seven o'clock. Wan and very pale, she was in a blue silk dressing-jacket, propped up with pillows. As I entered, she put out her small white hand and a single trembling word, my name, escaped her lips. I saw in the shaded light that her big eyes were filled with tears-- tears of joy by which mine were also dimmed. "I've--I've had such a bad dream!" she managed to say. "But, oh! Mr Kemball, how glad I am that it is only a dream, and that the doctor says I am getting better."