AT EIGHT-THIRTY Mr. Thurlow considered that his continued refusal to have dinner served was making much of what he was determined to think was a small affair. At eight-forty he said that he had eaten all he required, and he telephoned to Scotland Yard again. This time, he was not told that there was no news. Kindell answered him, and his anxiety was evident in his voice. "There's one thing turned up, but you can't call it good, and it isn't easy to guess what the explanation can be. We only heard it a few minutes ago, and I was just going to ring you. The taxi's been found, but the driver's missing."

"You mean the car's been abandoned?"

"Not exactly. Or at least not as though it were done in a hurry. It's standing on a cab rank off Holborn, but there's no-one in charge. It was reported by another driver, who said it was obstructing the rank."

"You've no clue to what happened?"

"We're fetching it in now."

"There's no news of Rene?"

"Nothing here. I hoped she might have got home."

"Well, she hasn't. I can't understand how - - "

"Superintendent Allenby wishes me to assure you that everything possible's being done."

"I can't agree about that. . . . I'm coming over now."

The ambassador heard Kindell say, "He says he's coming here now," and then, a moment later, "Superintendent Allenby says he'll be glad to see you."

"Will he? I hope he'll have some better news for me than he's got now."

Mr. Thurlow rang off without giving time for reply. He ordered a car, and then turned to the drawer which he had opened before. But this time the gun he handled was not laid down, but slipped into a hip-pocket which readily adapted itself to a shape it had known before.

He gave a brief instruction that he was to be rung up instantly at Scotland Yard if Irene should return, and it was no more than a few minutes later that he was in the presence of Superintendent Allenby, and found that he had met a man whose efficient unhurried urbanity even his anxious impatience could not disturb. Being one who was not only efficient himself, but who could recognize that quality in others, he was also quick to recognize that everything possible was being done, and his manner changed.

"I am glad you have come," the superintendent began "because I should like you to know what steps we have already taken, and to hear any suggestions for further action which your experience and knowledge of those concerned may suggest.

"It is difficult, on our present information, to decide with certainty what has occurred, but there are certain indications which limit the scope of our enquiries, and should be of material assistance in solving the problem, even although we are dealing with particularly astute and unscrupulous men, who have the assistance that money gives.

"I should tell you first that we are proceeding on the assumption that Kindell really did make no mistake in the number of the car, and we are at least equally certain that the one that legitimate]y bears that number was standing outside the Lyric Theatre during the time that he was following a similar one in the Mostyn Road.

"You will readily see the implications of - - "

He broke off as a clerk entered the room and laid a sheet of typed foolscap before him. "These are the particulars for which you asked, sir."

Superintendent Allenby's glance went rapidly down the page. His pencil ticked three of the list of names which it showed. "They must all be followed up," he said, "and without delay. Tell Chief Inspector Rolls that the three I have marked are worth special attention."

He explained, as the clerk withdrew "That was a list of all the new Starmar cars of that pattern, size, and quality which have been sold during the last year. We are probing the possibility that someone has deliberately used a fake number-plate identical with that of Miss Courtney, either habitually, or more probably, on particular occasions when occupied in illegal traffic. It is a device which shows the elaborate trickery of the men with whom we are concerned, and which might have caused more confusion and uncertainty than it has."

"I am surprised that you have been able to obtain the list so quickly."

"We had the secretary of the Starmar company on the telephone. We contacted him at the Plaza an hour ago. He was good enough to ring up a managing clerk who lives within two miles of their Nottingham offices, and to arrange for him to go there and 'phone us the required particulars. They have come through half an hour earlier than I could reasonably have expected. A member of the Starmar staff would doubtless have a fast car! . . . You may be sure," he added, "that we should allow no time to be lost in view of Miss Thurlow being concerned; though I should not wish you to think that we are seriously concerned for her safety. As I said before, the criminals with whom we are

dealing are as astute as they are unscrupulous, and that astuteness would make them particularly careful not to interfere with anyone in Miss Thurlow's position."

"If she isn't home in the next hour, you can reckon she's being detained somewhere by force, and if that isn't interference - "

"I shall be inclined to agree with you about that, particularly as there is good reason to believe that the car cannot have gone far. Of course, I cannot vouch for the vigilance or for the intelligence of every member of the constabulary force of half a dozen counties round London, but unless there has been a remissness somewhere such as there is no reason to expect, that car did not get away for more than fifteen miles, and probably ran under cover somewhere very much nearer.

"This is rendered more probable - indeed, almost certain - by the fact that Peller's car has been found so short a distance away, and - - "

"Peller being the taxi-driver?"

"Yes."

"You don't think he could have been in collusion with them?"

"The circumstances make it improbable; apart from which Inspector Barclay, who deals with these drivers, says that he has known him for twenty years, and has confidence that he is a straight man."

"You're certainly picking up the threads. But doesn't the fact that he has disappeared, being a man of that character, make the whole thing look a lot worse?"

"I have no wish to minimize it. And I am disposed, as I have said already, to agree that, if Miss Thurlow is not back very soon, the probability t............