triumph she found even harder to bear than the consciousness of her terrible danger.

Jules, on watch below, had at length become uneasy. He entered the shop and asked one of the assistants if the lady was still there.

“Yes,” replied the fellow readily, “she is upstairs with the manager looking at some furniture.”

Jules, his hand on his pistol in his pocket, and feeling strangely uneasy, started up the stairs. There was no one in the building. What could have become of Yvette and the manager?

On the third floor he noticed the door through which Yvette had gone. He seized the handle and tried to open it. But the door was locked and there was no key.

Not daring to raise an alarm for fear of the consequences to Yvette, Jules hastened down the stairs, and signalled to one of the Scotland Yard men. In a low voice Jules told him what had happened.

“We must be ready to break down that door at once,” he said.

With swift efficiency help was summoned, including a couple of men of the salvage corps, armed with powerful axes which would make short work of any ordinary door.

While the shop assistants were kept under surveillance, Jules and his helpers mounted to the third floor. They tried the door, and knocked. There was no reply, but inside they heard the hasty scurry of feet.

“Break it down,” said Inspector Buckhurst, who had been one of the first to arrive.

The salvage men sprang forward, and one on each side of the door began a furious attack with their axes.

Instantly a shot rang out. Splinters flew in showers, but the door, heavily barred and plated with iron, for a time defied all their efforts. At last it gave way, and headed by Jules the police party rushed in.

Their first discovery was Yvette, lying unconscious and bleeding profusely from a wound in the shoulder. Barakoff had fired at her as he hurried from the room when the thunderous attack on the door began. But in his blind haste his aim had been bad, even at such short range, and she escaped with comparatively slight injury.

But where was Barakoff?

Rushing out on to the flat roof Jules looked hurriedly round. To the southward a 

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