XII. The Baron Walks 

 XIII. Accumulating Evidence 

 XIV. The Explosion 

 XV. The Face on the Wall 

 XVI. The Baron Finds a Champion 

 XVII. And Audrey 

 XVIII. The Baron Returns 

 XIX. The Dark Horse 

 XX. The Baron Lays His Cards on the Table 

 XXI. A Last Word 

 Footnotes. 

 THE SKELETON KEY 

 CHAPTER I. MY FIRST MEETING WITH THE BARON 

MY FIRST MEETING WITH THE BARON

 (From the late Mr. Bickerdike’s “Apologia”[1]) 

 Some few years ago, in the month of September, I happened to be kicking my heels in Paris, awaiting the arrival there of my friend Hugo Kennett. We had both been due from the south, I from Vaucluse and Kennett from the Riviera, and the arrangement had been that we should meet together for a week in the capital before returning home. Enfants perdus! Kennett was never anything but unpunctual, and he failed to turn up to time, or anywhere near it, at the rendezvous. I was a trifle hipped, as I had come to the end of my circular notes, and had rather looked to him to help me through with a passing difficulty; but there was nothing for it but to wait philosophically on, and to get, pending his 

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