With a brief murmur of “Facts!” Frank took a chair and stretched out his long legs.

“Mrs. Wilton delivered the goods,” he said. “She had bathed Albert when a baby and nursed him with a broken collarbone. She deposes to a large mole on the left shoulderblade, and has identified the corpse in the mortuary as that of Albert Miller. That being that, the police are naturally anxious to interview Luke White. Alibi or no alibi, the change-over must have been with his consent. Of course he may have been bumped off since.”

Miss Silver coughed.

“I do not think so.” After a slight pause she continued. “You will, perhaps, agree that he would have a strong motive for preventing Florence Duke from seeing the body which Castell had identified.”

Frank said,

“He and Castell would both have a motive.”

“Yes. That was why I made such a particular point of her not being told until just before the inquest that she would have to identify the body. As soon as Inspector Crisp rang her up I knew that she would be in danger, and I did my best to persuade her to place herself under your protection at Cliff House. Captain Taverner would have driven her there, but she would not hear of it. There is no doubt that someone was listening to that call on the extension. Did it never strike you as peculiar that the extension should have been in the butler’s pantry, and not in this room which was in use as an office? There could be but one reason for so odd an arrangement, and that was the greater privacy of the pantry. No one could approach it without being seen by Annie Castell. But this room, with its two doors, one opening upon a passage and the other on the lounge-”

Frank nodded.

“Yes, I agree. Well, that’s that-so much for the identity question. You were right about the other thing too. Willis and I got to work on the carpet in here, and there’s been blood spilt on it. Wiped off the surface, but some of it had soaked through. It wasn’t quite dry. Miller was killed in this room, just as you said.”

“Yes, I was sure of it.”

“Crisp is a bit shaken, but still clinging to the idea that Florence Duke committed suicide.”

Miss Silver shook her head.

“Oh, no, she didn’t do that. When it was known that she would be asked to identify the body it became too dangerous to let her live. I do not think that the substitution had ever taken her in. I think she knew very well that the body in the hall was not that of Luke White. I think she lifted it sufficiently to see the face-she was a strongly built woman-and that she was not deceived. She must, therefore, have known that her husband was implicated in the murder, and she had to decide at once what she should do. She decided to screen him. A very disastrous decision, but it is hard to blame a wife for shielding her husband. But the people who had murdered Albert Miller would not know whether she had recognized him or not. They would not dare to take the risk of her being confronted with the body and asked to make a formal identification. We have no means of knowing whether it was then and there decided to remove her in such a manner as to make it appear that she had committed suicide, or whether there was an intermediate stage during which they or Luke White entered into negotiations with her. As I said, we shall probably never know, but I incline to the belief that she received some kind of communication. It may have been something directly from her husband, or something purporting to furnish her with information about him. Whatever it was, it decided her to leave her room and meet her murderer.”

Frank nodded.

“I expect you’re right. But we shan’t be able to prove anything-unless somebody turns King’s evidence.”

It was at this moment that there was the sound of running feet. They came from the direction of the lounge. The communicating door was thrown open and Jane Heron appeared, her eyes startled, her colour coming and going. She checked on the threshold with an “Oh, Miss Silver!” and then came out with,

“I can’t find Eily!”

Miss Silver knew then what she had been afraid of. She rose to her feet and put her knitting down upon the table.

Jeremy had come up behind Jane. Mildred Taverner was straying towards them across the lounge. There was a horrid similarity to the scene before the door of Florence Duke’s room that very morning. Mildred said in a trembling whisper,

“Things always happen in threes-first Luke, and then Florence, and now Eily. Oh, why did I come to this horrible house!”

Miss Silver said, “Hush!” And then, to Jane, “Was she not with you?”

“We went out just for a little-really only up and down on the cliff. Eily said she was going to help Cousin Annie. When we came in she wasn’t there. She isn’t anywhere-we’ve been all over the house.”

“You do not think that she has gone to meet John Higgins?”

“No-he’s just been up asking for her. He’s outside now. He didn’t want to come in. That is why I was looking for Eily.”

Miss Silver acted with decision.

“Please go and fetch him. Miss Taverner, will you go back to the lounge.”

She shut the door upon herself and Frank Abbott.

“Frank, this may be serious. Inspector Crisp should be here, and enough men to take charge. There are dangerous criminals involved. If Eily has really disappeared, it means that one of them has played his own hand and is risking the safety of the others. I don’t need to tell you just how dangerous that may be.”

“Crisp should have been here by now. He may be here at any minute.”

She said in as grave a voice as he had ever heard her use,

“We have no minutes to spare. That man Luke White is not sane about Eily. If, as I have suspected, he has the secret of the other passage, and is somewhere in the house-”

“You think he has carried her off? But the risk-”

“My dear Frank, when did the thought of risk deter a man with a crazy passion?”

The door on to the passage was thrown open and John Higgins came in, Jane and Jeremy a little way behind. It was clear that he had run and outstripped them.

“Where’s Eily?” he said.

Miss Silver went up to him and put her hand on his arm.

“We will find her, Mr. Higgins, but everyone must help.”

“Help?” He gave a sob. “What do you mean?”

She said, “I will tell you,” and at the same moment Frank Abbott touched her.

“There’s Crisp. What do you want-the Castells rounded up?”

“Everyone rounded up. I think one of the Mr. Taverners has returned. I thought someone came in while we were talking. I want everyone together, and at once. There must be no delay. It is extremely urgent.”

He said, “All right-everyone in the lounge,” and went out that way.

Miss Silver spoke to the three who remained.

“Mr. Higgins-Captain Taverner-Miss Heron-if any one of you know anything at all about this house, you must disclose it now. Mr. Jacob Taverner showed you a passage between the cellars and the shore. I think that it was shown to you as a blind. It may have been shown to him in the same way- I do not know. But I am sure that there is another passage, or at the very least a secret room, perhaps communicating with that passage to the shore. If Eily has disappeared she will be in this room, and the entrance must be found without delay. It was Albert Miller who was murdered on Saturday night. Luke White is alive. This is the first time since Saturday that the moon and the tide would be favourable to his being put across the Channel. Eily’s disappearance looks as if the attempt was to be made tonight and he was making a crazy bid to take her with him. Now if one of you knows any single thing that will help us to discover the entrance to this second passage or room, you will see that you must not hold it back.”

A few minutes later she was saying this all over again to a larger audience. There were present Inspector Crisp, the plain-clothes detective Willis, a constable at either door of the lounge, Castell, and, of the Taverner connection, Annie Castell, Jane, Jeremy, Mildred Taverner, and her brother Geoffrey looking as neat as she was dishevelled and a good deal concerned.