“Thank you,” said Westerham, “that is at least frank.”

“I am learning,” returned Melun, “that it is scarcely worth while to be anything else with you.”

“Thank you again,” said Westerham. “And now suppose I ask you whether you can throw any light on the subject?”

“Now,” said Melun, “you are asking a really sensible question. I can. What is more, I think I can completely clear up the mystery for you.”

“So you did have a hand in it, after all?” cried Westerham.

“Well, yes, I had a hand in it; but I took no part in the actual burgling.”

Sir Paul stared at him in amazement. “What do you mean?” he demanded.

“First of all,” said Melun,[Pg 111] “what was the description of the mysterious stranger given by your valet?”

[Pg 111]

“Very tall, very thin, with reddish hair and reddish moustache, and, so far as he could see through the mask on his face, grey eyes. His hands, as Blyth had good reason to notice, were very large and sunburnt, with uncommonly well-kept nails.”

Melun nodded his head. “Good,” he said, “the description tallies exactly with the gentleman I suspected of having been here this afternoon.

“You may have noticed,” he continued, “that one of the men most in evidence at Downing Street last night was the Premier's private secretary, the Hon. Claude Hilden.”

“Yes,” said Westerham, eagerly, “what of him?”

“He burgled your rooms,” said Melun, calmly.

“What!” Westerham jumped out of his chair and stood over Melun. “What do you mean? Why, it is impossible. If he did that it must have been by Lord Penshurst's orders, and what, in the name of Heaven, could they have expected to find here?”

“Exactly what Hilden came to find—what he did find, and what he took away with him.”

“In the name of Heaven, what?” asked Westerham, to whom things were becoming a little too complicated for him to follow.

“What Hilden found,” said Melun, slowly and precisely, “were Lady Kathleen's diamonds.”

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