Wessex spoke the word challengingly, staring straight into the eyes of Nicol Brinn, but the latter gave no sign, and Wessex, concealing his disappointment, continued:  “You know more about Fire-Tongue than you ever told Mr. Paul Harley.  All you know I have got to know.  Mr. Harley has been kidnapped, perhaps done to death.”

“Why do you say so?” asked Nicol Brinn, rapidly.

“Because I know it is so.  It does not matter how I know.”

“You are certain that his absence is not voluntary?”

“We have definite evidence to that effect.”

“I don’t expect you to be frank with me, Detective Inspector, but I’ll be as frank with you as I can be.  I haven’t the slightest idea in the world where Mr. Harley is.  But I have information which, if I knew where he was, would quite possibly enable me to rescue him.”

“Provided he is alive!” added Wessex, angrily.

“What leads you to suppose that he is not?”

“If he is alive, he is a prisoner.”

“Good God!” said Nicol Brinn in a low voice.  “It has come.”  He took a step toward the detective.  “Mr. Wessex,” he continued, “I don’t tell you to do whatever your duty indicates; I know you will do it.  But in the interests of everybody concerned I have a request to make.  Have me watched if you like—­I suppose that’s automatic.  But whatever happens, and wherever your suspicions point, give me twenty-four hours.  As I think you can see, I am a man who thinks slowly, but moves with a rush.  You can believe me or not, but I am even more anxious than you are to see this thing through.  You think I know what lies back of it all, and I don’t say that you are not right.  But one thing you don’t know, and that thing I can’t tell you.  In twenty-four hours I might be able to tell you.  Whatever happens, even if poor Harley is found dead, don’t hamper my movements between now and this time tomorrow.”

Wessex, who had been watching the speaker intently, suddenly held out his hand.  “It’s a bet!” he said.  “It’s my case, and I’ll conduct it in my own way.”

“Mr. Wessex,” replied Nicol Brinn, taking the extended hand, “I think you are a clever man.  There are questions you would like to ask me, and there are questions I would like to ask you.  But we both realize the facts of the situation, and we are both silent.  One thing I’ll say:  You are in the deadliest peril you have ever known.  Be careful.  Believe me I mean it.  Be very careful.”

CHAPTER XIV.  WESSEX GETS BUSY

Innes rose from the chair usually occupied by Paul Harley as Detective Inspector Wessex, with a very blank face, walked into the office.  Innes looked haggard and exhibited unmistakable signs of anxiety.  Since he had received that dramatic telephone message from his chief he had not spared himself for a moment.  The official machinery of Scotland Yard was at work endeavouring to trace the missing man, but since it