The Herapath Property

rapath i

him take a convenient set of rooms in Upper Seymour Street, close by. He also caused a telephone communication to be set up between his own house and Selwood's bedroom, so that he could summon his secretary at any hour of the night. Herapath occasionally had notions about things in the small hours, and he was one of those active, restless persons who, if they get a new idea, like to figure on it at once.

o go round at once. He dressed hurriedly, and ran off to Herapath's house; there in the hall, near the door of a room which Herapath used as a study and busi

ge?" demanded Selwood

nd jerked his thumb towards

path is, sir," he answered. "He hasn't sle

ight," suggested Selwood. "He may ha

coachman, a little, sharp-eyed man who was meditatively

e-as usual. I saw him let himself into the house.

. Herapath every night. A small decanter of whiskey, a syphon, a few sandwiches, a dry biscuit or two. Well, there you are, sir-he's had a drink out of that glass, he's had a mouthful or so of sandwiches. Oh, yes, he came home, but he's not at home

the various well-known objects and fittings. He glanced at the evidences of the supper tray; then at the blotting-pad

d about, Kitteridge," he said. "Mr. Herapath may have

he's taken nothing at all in that way. Besides, I've been in this house seven years, and I know his habits. If he'd wanted to go away by one of the very early morning trains he'd have kept me and C

rned to th

path home at one o'cl

pot, just as the clock was striking. 'Mountain,' he says, 'I want you to drive round to the estate office-I want to call there.' So I drove there-that's in Kensington, as you know, sir. When he got out he says, 'Mountain,' he says, 'I shall be three-quarters of an hour or so here-wrap the mare up and walk her about,' he says. I did as he said,

urned to

was up at that t

, and it's one of his rules that everybody in the house must be in bed by eleven-thirty. No one was ever to sit up for him on any occa

p. Have you made any inquiry as to whether anybody heard Mr. Herapath moving about in the nig

eard nothing of the sort so far, and all the servants are aware by now

r opened and a girl came into the room. At sig

Wynne?" he whisper

in low tones. "Of course they're all talking of it. I was

he knew, too, that Herapath had brought her up from infancy and treated her as a daughter. She was at this time a young woman of twenty-one or two, a pretty, eminently likeable young woman, with si

not in the house. But there's nothing alarming in that, Kitteridge, i

says that Mr. Herapath had made no preparation for a sudden journ

m the House?" she a

he supper-tray and then

our later than usual. Mountain brought him home at one o

turned to t

he entered the h

lied Mountain. "He was putting his

teridge, pointing to the tray. "

e," said Peggie. "My uncle, no doubt, had reasons for

down yet, miss,"

to Selwood. "What do you think?" she asked, with a slight sh

I think, I don't know sufficient about Mr

s up in the middle of the night and comes down here, but I never knew him to go out.

yes from the papers strewn about the desk to t

re obscured by a pair of dark-tinted spectacles. He moved gently and with an air of habitual shyness, and Selwoo

b? He came in during the night-one o'clock-and now he's disappeare

us shook

wered. "Disappeared! Is

esides, he had a drink out of that glass

per tray and remained looking at what he saw ther

s things without saying a word to any one. Have you, now, thoug

o the chair at Herapath's d

she exclaimed. "Come to the telephone

te of sandwiches. One sandwich had been taken from the plate and bitten into-once. Mr. Tertius took up that sandwich with the tips of his delicately-shaped fingers. He held that, too, nearer the light. And having looked at it he hastily selected an envelope from the stationery cabinet on the desk, carefully

and went downstairs again. Selwood and Peggie Wynne were just coming away

caretaker was just going to ring us up when I got thro

of C