The Riddle of the Purple Emperor

rtly build. Cleek, passing the long French windows through which he had obtained entr

s they tore up the short flight o

tered with Lady Margaret such a short while before. "There's no use trying to force this door

ne, two, perhaps five minutes passed; the echoes of their blows had died away into silence, and the flash of their torches sh

oberts with a frown puckering his bushy brows. "

grating of bolts being withdrawn into their sockets came to their ears, and in another second the great door swung slowly back upon its hinges. The mellow radiance of lamps streamed out and flung a circle of light round them. As i

ts first. He turned to the butler

Cheyne at once," he rapped o

de, as if the visit were the

ir," was the surprising answer. "I will se

e!" said Cl

fore Cleek could stop him. "This gentleman came to fetch me to vie

untenance the man fell back a pace, and seizing the opportunity thu

f only just realizing the gravity of the situation; then, ra

e, the door of the room which he knew to be the dining room opened with a little angry jerk, and in the doorway stood a figure that caused Cleek's

shrill voice at the sound of which the constable's ruddy face became purple

d me away from the nicest bit of supper I ever wants to see, to tell me you was a-lying murdered, begging yer pardon, and that Lady Margaret, whom he'd dr

l you--" b

wheeled round on him, her

ered woman. "So you are the impertinent stranger who inflicted himself on an ignorant, helpless girl, and caused me to miss my niece at the station. I drive back with the se

ok no notice of, but advanci

see Lady

elves upon people, even if they have been of some service. As far as you are concerned, sir, my niece'

ded Cleek seriously. "My name is Deland, and you can make what enquiries you like from my friend Mr. Maveric

Cleek, with that queer sixth sense of intuition, felt that he had said the wrong thing. I

disposed to push her moment

I am not sure that I can't have the law on you for breaking in my windows this evening. It will cost me a pretty penny. But I should like you to understand that I won't have my niece disturbed by any

ove the two men back until they found themselves once

on, and commenced a pent-up tirade against him fo

Sure he was that a dead woman had stared at him from the floor of that house, but he was also just as sure that the same woman had driven him out from it. And what of Lady

much to the open-mouthed astonishment of Constable

" he exclaimed, agitatedly,

e in the air and an artificial scent, Huile de jasmin at that. It is a woman's scen

ead, when she's no more dead than you or me--" retorted the constable, heate

gain vigorously. He tested each step till he reached the gravelled path. All at once he gave vent to a sharp cry of triumph for ther

h was black as a beggar's pocket, and as empty. A placid moon shone over silent f

out. The sixth sense of impending danger whic

pulled the car up with such a jerk that Roberts, who had subsided i

t!" he exclaimed sharply. "There's

d the low hedge as lightly as any schoolboy, and

eadly terror gazed up at him, and from him to the majesty of the law as embodied in the person

culated, and the sound of the evidently familiar voi

ch was his usual manner, an attempt that did not blind Cleek to the fact that

gadding around at

itterly. "I've bin fetched ou

Cheyne!" gaspe

e looped up one cor

ht conclusions too quickly. Why should Sir Edgar Brenton, as he knew this man to be, know that it should be Miss Cheyne, unless

ce he could hear Rober

gh with this gent, Lieutenant Deland, a-coming and fetching me away from my bit of supper. What my missis will s

ated the young squire in

ir Edgar, that it was Miss Cheyne?" asked the cons

eared his throat

an odd little crabbed note in it. "You see, you were coming str

k, who had stepped back into the shadow of the hedge, twitched up hi

-fight in London, you know, Roberts. Only just got back, in fact, and I didn't feel up to it, so when I heard that preciou

, in whose eyes Sir Edgar could do no wrong. Then to Cleek

r, don't you know. Perhaps you'll let me drive you through the village if you are going this way." He smiled with

Sir Edgar, and got

into the village, and here Sir Edgar insisted o

ith brows on which dee

futilely?" he said at length as his shadow

constable, as he fumbled with

; his clothes smelt strongly of the scent which pervaded the house this afternoon, namely jasmine; and thirdly, ther

ayed supper, the car whizzed away in the moonlight. Cleek's first duty was to

silence. "I thought you were never coming back.

ut Cleek flung up

ater mystery here than I can fathom," he said quickly

this news of her evident existence as she had been a short while back by her demise. "But

there all right, Constable Roberts will vouch for that; and Lady Margaret is presumably tucked up s

ious discoveries and at the end of

e nothing can be done, but I will go up to Cheyne Cou

iled his

st run up and see Mr. Narkom, and