"You remember the terms of our agreement last Wednesday?" he began. "I undertook to suspend application for a search warrant...."

"If we discovered Sylvia," I said. "Yes?"

"And my sister Mavis."

I hope Nigel did not see my jaw drop. Save for the moment when I looked casually through the other rooms in the Maidenhead bungalow I had completely forgotten the Mavis stipulation. Every plan and hope I had cherished in respect of Joyce had been cherished in vain.

"The time was to expire on Monday, at noon," said the Seraph.

"Exactly. I thought I would remind you that only half the undertaking had been carried out. That is all."

Nigel would make an admirable proctor; he is to the manner born. I had quite the old feeling of being five shillings the poorer for straying round the streets of Oxford at night without academical dress.

I caught the Seraph's eye and made as if to rise.

"One moment," said Arthur. "There is a good deal more to come."

I folded my arms resignedly. Any one may lecture me if it amuses him to do so, but the Seraph ought to have been in bed instead of having to submit to examination by an old K.C.

"The question is a good deal wider," Arthur began. "You, Aintree, are suspected of harbouring at your flat a woman who is wanted by the police on a most serious charge...."

"I thought we'd cleared all this up on Wednesday," I said, with an impatient glance at Nigel.

"No arrangement you may have made on Wednesday is binding on me."

"It was binding on your son, who sits on one side of you," I said, "and on Mr. Nigel Rawnsley, who sits on the other."

Arthur drew himself up, no doubt unconsciously.

"As a Minister of the Crown I cannot be a party to any connivance at crime."

"Philip and Nigel," I said. "As sons of Ministers of the Crown, I hope you will take that to heart."

"What I have to say----" Arthur began.

"One moment!" I interrupted. "Are you speaking as a Minister of the Crown or a father of a family? Sylvia's been restored to you as the result of your son and Nigel conniving at what you hope and believe to be a crime. You wouldn't have got her back without that immoral compromise."

"The flat would have been searched," said Nigel.

"It was. Paddy and Gartside searched it and declared themselves satisfied...."

"They lied."

"Will you repeat that to Gartside?" I asked invitingly. "I fancy not.

They searched and declared themselves satisfied. I offered to show the detectives round ten minutes after--by all accounts--this woman ought to have taken refuge there. Anybody could have searched it if they'd approached the owner properly."

He ignored my implied reproof and stuck to his guns.

"There was a woman there when Gartside said there was not."

"Gartside only said Miss Davenant wasn't there."

It was the Seraph speaking, slowly and almost for the first time. His face flushed crimson as he said it. I could not help looking at Sylvia; I looked away again quickly.

"There was _some_ woman there, then?" said Nigel.

My cue was plain, and I took it.

"Miss Davenant is the only person whose name is before the house," I interposed. "Gartside said she was not there. Were you satisfied, Phil? I thought so. It's no good asking you, Nigel; you won't be satisfied till you've searched in person, and that you can't do till after Monday. Every one who agreed to Wednesday's compromise is bound by it till Monday midday. If after that Nigel _still_ thinks it worth while to conduct Scotland Yard over the flat, of course we shan't attempt to stop him. As for any one who was not present or personally bound by Wednesday's compromise, that is to say, you, Arthur--do you declare to win by 'Father of a Family' or 'Minister of the Crown'? You must take one or the other."

"The two are inseparable," he answered shortly.

"You must contrive to separate them. If you declare 'Father of a Family,' you must hold yourself bound by Phil's arrangement. If you declare 'Minister of the Crown,' you oughtn't to have profited by the compromise, you oughtn't to have allowed us to restore Sylvia to you.

Common schoolboy honour tells you that. Incidentally, why haven't you had the flat searched already? As a Minister of the Crown, you know...."

If my heart had not been beating so quickly, I should have liked to study their faces at leisure. The history of the last two days was written with tolerable clearness. Nigel had told Arthur--and possibly his own father--the story of his visit to Adelphi Terrace; he had hinted sufficient to incite one or both to take the matter up officially. Then Philip had intervened and depicted himself as bound in honour to take no step until the expiration of the armistice. Their faces told a pretty tale of "pull devil, pull baker," with Nigel at the head, Philip at the feet, and Arthur twisting and struggling between them.

I had no need to ask why the flat had not yet been searched, but I repeated my question.

"And when _are_ you going to search it?" I added.

Arthur attempted a compromise.

"If you will give me your word...." he began.

"Not a bit of it!" I said. "Are you bound or are you not? Sylvia's in the room to settle any doubts on the subject."

He yielded after a struggle.

"I will take no steps to search the flat until after midday on Monday, provided Mavis is restored by then."

I made another attempt to rise, but Arthur waved me back into my seat.

"I have not finished yet. As you point out, Sylvia is in the room. I wish to know how she got here, and I wish still more to know how she was ever spirited away in the first instance."

"I know nothing about the getting away. She may be able to throw light on that. Hasn't she told you how we found her?"

"She has given me your version."

"Then I don't suppose I can add anything to it."

"You might substitute a story that would hold a little more water."

"I am afraid I am not naturally inventive."

"Since when?"

His tone told me that I had definitely lost Arthur as a friend--which was regrettable, but if I could play the part of whetstone to his repartee I was content to see him draw profit from the _debris_ of our friendship.