"No."
"How about you, Beresford?"
Beresford hesitated.
"Yes," he admitted finally. "Always carry one at night in the
country." The statement seemed reasonable enough but Miss Cornelia
gave him a sharp glance of mistrust, nevertheless.
The detective seemed to have more confidence in the young idler.
"Beresford, will you go with this Jap to the kitchen?" as Billy,
grimly clutching his butcher knife, retraced his steps toward the
hall. "If anyone's working at the knob--shoot through the door.
I'm going round to take a look outside."
Beresford started to obey. Then he paused.
"I advise you not to turn the doorknob yourself, then," he said
flippantly.
The detective nodded. "Much obliged," he said, with a grin. He
ran lightly into the alcove and tiptoed out of the terrace door,
closing the door behind him. Beresford and Billy departed to take
up their posts in the kitchen. "I'll go with you, if you don't
mind--" and Jack Bailey had followed them, leaving Miss Cornelia
and Dale alone with the Doctor. Miss Cornelia, glad of the
opportunity to get the Doctor's theories on the mystery without
Anderson's interference, started to question him at once.
"Doctor."
"Yes." The Doctor turned, politely.
"Have you any theory about this occurrence to-night?" She watched
him eagerly as she asked the question.
He made a gesture of bafflement.
"None whatever--it's beyond me," he confessed.
"And yet you warned me to leave this house," said Miss Cornelia
cannily.
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