"Naturally." Barclay mopped his forehead with his handkerchief once again. "Where would you suggest that I start looking for information on the late Mr. Bright?"

"I believe that you will want to begin your quest in Devon."

" Devon is a rather large place, m'lord. Have you any notion of precisely where in Devon I should look?"

"You might try a little town called Deepford."

Iphiginia swept into Zoe's drawing room at ten minutes after three the following afternoon. Amelia was right behind her.

"We came as quickly as we could." Iphiginia glanced first at her aunt, who was ensconced on her new red velvet Roman sofa. Then she looked across the room at Lord Otis, who was helping himself to a glass of brandy.

"Thank God you're here," Zoe said in a voice that held elements of a Greek tragedy.

Otis, a short, stocky, kindly faced man with thinning gray hair and bushy brows, gave Iphiginia and Amelia a look of grim despair. "Disaster has struck again."

"What on earth is wrong?" Iphiginia untied the strings of her ruffled, high-crowned white bonnet. "Your note said something dreadful had occurred, Aunt Zoe."

"I have received another blackmail demand," Zoe said. She picked up a folded sheet of foolscap and handed it to Iphiginia. "See for yourself."

Iphiginia took the note. She glanced at the broken black wax seal with its all-too-familiar phoenix emblem and then read the contents aloud.

Madam: If you wish for continued silence on a certain very personal matter you must bring five thousand pounds to the new sepulchral monument constructed for Mrs. Eaton at Reeding Cemetery. Come on the stroke of midnight tonight. The money must be placed on the stone in the center of the monument.

Come alone, madam, or the price will double the next time.

yrs.

The Phoenix

Amelia sat down heavily on a chair. "So we were right. The first one was only the beginning."

"I told you this would happen," Otis muttered darkly. He went across the room to where Zoe sat and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Blackmailers always come back for more. It's the nature of the beast."

"What am I going to do?" Zoe waffled. "I could handle the first payment and I suppose that I can handle a second. This blackmailer seems to he shrewd enough to keep his demands within reason. But I cannot continue to pay blackmail for the rest of my life. Sooner or later he will surely bleed me dry."

"We'll find the bastard," Otis vowed. "And when we do, I'D personally wring his neck."

Zoe lifted one hand to touch Otis's fingers in a grateful gesture. She looked at Iphiginia. "Have' you discovered anything at all?"

Iphiginia sank down slowly onto a claw-footed chair. "I believe I have eliminated three of the men who played cards regularly with Guthrie eighteen years ago and who also move in Masters's circle."

"Which ones?" Otis demanded. "Lartmore, Judson, and Darrow. I have managed to get into all of their studies or libraries and examine their wax jacks and seals. None of them appear to use black wax. Nor did I discover any seals engraved with a phoenix."

"They may have hidden both the seals and the wax," Amelia pointed out.

"Yes, I know," Iphiginia said. "Masters remarked upon that possibility also. But I searched their desks very carefully. In any event, we have no choice but to continue along this line of inquiry. The black wax and the phoenix seal are the only clues that we have."

"They have got us nowhere thus far." Zoe slumped back against the curve of the sofa and heaved a theatrical sigh. "I am lost. What are we going to do?"

"There, there, do not take on so, m'dear." Otis patted her shoulder. "We'll find a way out of this."

Iphiginia refolded the note and contemplated the seal. "I wonder if Masters's friend has also received a second blackmail note."

Amelia frowned. "An excellent question."

"I know nothing of the demands his acquaintance may have received," Zoe muttered. "But I can tell you that I must act immediately. The note said that the money is to be delivered to the appointed place at precisely midnight tonight."

"A cemetery at midnight," Iphiginia mused. "How very melodramatic. It would seem our blackmailer has been reading some of Mrs. Radcliffe's gothic novels."

"Either that or he 'enjoys amusing himself in this strange manner," Zoe muttered.

"Yes." Iphiginia made her decision. "I shall deliver the money this time."

Zoe, Amelia, and Otis stared at her in amazement. "Absolutely not," Zoe said. "Otis will handle it, just as he did last time."

"You cannot possibly undertake such a dangerous task, Iphiginia," Amelia said.

"Quite right," Otis announced. "I'll deal with it." Iphiginia raised a hand for silence. "The note specifically instructs Zoe to bring the money. That means the villain will no doubt he watching from the shadows to see that his orders are carried out. He will expect to see a woman. If he does not, he may very well ask for ten thousand pounds next time."

"Ten thousand pounds." Zoe looked as though she were about to faint.

Otis produced her vinaigrette. "Here, m'dear." "Thank you. ,' Zoe took a gentle whiff of the smelling salts.

Otis scowled at Iphiginia. "You cannot make the delivery. Someone is bound to recognize that little white carriage of yours and wonder what you are about visiting a cemetery at midnight."

"Do not concern yourself. I shall be perfectly safe." Iphiginia frowned in thought. "I'll use a hackney coach and I shall pay the coachman to wait for me. I shall dress anonymously and wear a cloak with a hood that will conceal my features. If the villain sees me he will assume it is Zoe."

"But Iphiginia"-Zoe looked horrified-"it's a cemetery, for goodness' sake. At midnight, no less."

"After a year traipsing about the ruins of Italy, I am quite accustomed to sepulchral ruins."

"This is hardly the same thing as a visit to Pompeii," Amelia mutter ed. "Zoe is right. It is much too dangerous.

"Cannot allow it," Otis said authoritatively. "Nonsense," Iphiginia said. "There is no danger. The blackmailer is hardly likely to murder the person who leaves the money. That would he rather like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs."

Zoe looked aghast. "Murder. Dear heaven. I thought we'd at least established that the villain is not a murderer."

"A poor choice of words," Iphiginia said quickly. "What I meant to say was that there is no reason the blackmailer would want to hurt me."

"I'll come with you," Amelia said.

Otis's brows jiggled up and down. "So will I." "I must come, too," Zoe said.

"No, no, no." Iphiginia shook her head impatiently. "Impossible. The blackmailer might see the three of you and decide to make good on his threat to increase the demands. No, we must obey his instructions to the letter."

Amelia frowned. "Why are you so determined to make the delivery this time, Iphiginia?"

"I am hoping to learn something useful," Iphiginia admitted.

Zoe's eyes widened. "Never tell me that you are going to try to observe the blackmailer as he picks up the money. I cannot possibly allow you to take such a risk."

"No, of course not," Iphiginia said. "I would not do anything so rash."

But that was precisely what she intended. Tonight's visit to Reeding Cemetery might well he an opportunity to discover a useful clue to the villain's identity.

At ten minutes to midnight the hackney carriage clattered to a halt at the fog-shrouded gates of Reeding Cemetery.

Iphiginia, dressed in an old nondescript gray gown and a long gray cloak, peered out into the darkness.