“She glared at me with those wonderful eyes, an expression of implacable hatred in them!  Remembering all that we had done for her; remembering our former friendship; above all, remembering you—­this look of hers almost made me shiver.  She was dressed very smartly in European fashion, and the whole thing had been so sudden that as I stood looking at her I half expected to wake up presently and find it all a day-dream.  But it was real—­as real as her enmity.  I felt the need for reflection, and having vainly endeavored to draw her into conversation, and elicited no other answer than this glare of hatred—­I left her there, going out and locking the door behind me.”

“Very high-handed?”

“A commissioner has certain privileges, Petrie, and any action I might choose to take was not likely to be questioned.  There was only one window to the office, and it was fully twenty feet above the level; it overlooked a narrow street off the main thoroughfare (I think I have explained that the house stood on a corner) so I did not fear her escaping.  I had an important engagement which I had been on my way to fulfil when the encounter took place, and now, with a word to my native servant—­who chanced to be downstairs—­I hurried off.”

Smith’s pipe had gone out as usual, and he proceeded to relight it, whilst, with my eyes lowered, I continued to drum upon the table.

“This boy took her some tea later in the afternoon,” he continued, “and apparently found her in a more placid frame of mind.  I returned immediately after dusk, and he reported that when last he had looked in, about half an hour earlier, she had been seated in an armchair reading a newspaper (I may mention that everything of value in the office was securely locked up!) I was determined upon a certain course by this time, and I went slowly upstairs, unlocked the door, and walked into the darkened office.  I turned up the light . . . the place was empty!”

“Empty!”

“The window was open, and the bird flown!  Oh! it was not so simple a flight—­as you would realize if you knew the place.  The street, which the window overlooked, was bounded by a blank wall, on the opposite side, for thirty or forty yards along; and as we had been having heavy rains, it was full of glutinous mud.  Furthermore, the boy whom I had left in charge had been sitting in the doorway immediately below the office window watching for my return ever since his last visit to the room above . . .”

“She must have bribed him,” I said bitterly—­“or corrupted him with her infernal blandishments.”

“I’ll swear she did not,” rapped Smith decisively.  “I know my man, and I’ll swear she did not.  There were no marks in the mud of the road to show that a ladder had been placed there; moreover, nothing of the kind could have been attempted whilst the boy was sitting in the doorway; that was evident.  In short, she did not descend into the roadway and did not come out by the door . . .”