“My client would like to see the cabinet at once,” he said.  “She is in a very nervous condition; especially since she learned that some one else has tried to open the drawer.  When will it be convenient for you to go with us?”

“I can go at once,” I said.

“Then we will drive around for you.  We should be there in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“Very well,” I said, “I’ll be ready.  I shall, of course, want to take a witness with me.”

“That is quite proper,” assented Mr. Hornblower.  “We can have no objection to that.  In twenty minutes, then.”

I got the Record office as soon as I could, but Godfrey was not there.  He did not come on usually, some one said, until the middle of the afternoon.  I rang his rooms, but there was no reply.  Finally I called up the Vantine house.

“Parks,” I said, “I am bringing up some people to look at that cabinet.  It might be just as well to get that cot out of the way and have all the lights going?”

“The lights are already going, sir,” he said.

“Already going?  What do you mean?”

“Mr. Godfrey has been here for quite a while, sir, fooling with that cabinet thing.”

“He has!” and then I reflected that I ought to have guessed his whereabouts.  “Tell him, Parks, that I am bringing some people up to see the cabinet, and that I should like him to stay there and be a witness of the proceedings.”

“Very well, sir,” assented Parks.

“Everything quiet?”

“Oh, yes, sir; there was two policemen outside all night, and Rogers and me inside.”

“Mr. Hornblower’s carriage is below, sir,” announced the office-boy, opening the door.

“All right,” I said.  “We are coming right up, Parks.  Good-bye,” and I hung up and slipped into my coat.

Then, as I took down my hat, a sudden thought struck me.

If the unknown Frenchman was indeed an emissary of Monsieur X., Madame might be acquainted with him.  It was a long shot, but worth trying!  I stepped to my desk, took out the photograph which Godfrey had given me, and slipped it into my pocket.  Then I hurried out to the elevator.

CHAPTER XIV

THE VEILED LADY

There were three persons in the carriage.  Mr. Hornblower sat with his back to the horses, and two women were on the opposite seat.  Both were dressed in black and heavily veiled, but there was about them the indefinable distinction of mistress and maid.  It would be difficult to tell precisely in what the distinction consisted, but it was there.  Mr. Hornblower glanced behind me as I entered.

“You spoke of a witness,” he said.

“He is at the Vantine house,” I explained, and sat down beside him.

“This is Mr. Lester,” he said, and the veiled lady opposite him, whom I had known at once to be the mistress, inclined her head a little.