"It is only fair to say that you and Aintree are regarded with a good deal of suspicion," he went on. "Apart from the question of the flat...."

"Not again!" I begged.

"I have not mentioned the report of the officers who watched Miss Davenant's house in...."

"Nigel has," I interrupted. "_Ad nauseam._ My interview was apparently very different from their report. Suppose we have them in?"

"They are not in the house."

"Then hadn't we better leave them out of the discussion? What else are we suspected of?"

Arthur traced a pattern on the blotting-pad, and then looked up very sternly.

"Complicity with the whole New Militant campaign."

I turned to the Seraph.

"This is devilish serious," I said. "Incitement to crime, three abductions, more in contemplation. I shouldn't have thought it to look at you. Naughty boy!"

Arthur was really angry at that. I knew it by his old habit of growing red behind the ears.

"You appear to think this is a fit subject for jesting," he burst out.

"I laugh that I may not weep," I said. "A charge like this is rather upsetting. Have you bothered about any evidence?"

"You will find there is perhaps more evidence than you relish. Apart from your intimacy with Miss Davenant...."

"She's a very pretty woman," I interrupted.

"...you have successfully kept one foot in either camp. You were present when Rawnsley told me of the abduction of Mavis, and added that the matter was being kept secret. Miss Davenant at once published an article entitled 'Where is Miss Rawnsley?'"

"If she really abducted the girl, she'd naturally notice it was being kept quiet," I objected.

"On the day after Private Members' time had been appropriated, Jefferson's boy disappeared; Miss Davenant must have been warned in time to have her plans laid. She referred to my midland campaign, and had an accomplice lying in wait for my daughter with a car, the same day that Rawnsley made his announcement that there would be no autumn session."

"You will find all this on the famous Time Table," I reminded him.

"She got her information from some one who knew the arrangements of the Government."

"I'm surprised you continued to know me," I said, and turned to the Seraph. "It's devilish serious, as I said before, but it seems to be my funeral."

Arthur soon undeceived me.

"You are both equally incriminated. Aintree, is it not the case that on one occasion in Oxford and another in London, you warned my daughter that trouble was in store for her?"

The Seraph had been sitting silent and with closed eyes since his single intervention. He now opened his eyes and bowed without speaking.

"I suggest that you knew an attempt would be made to abduct her?"

"No."

"You are quite certain?"

"Quite."

"Then why the warning?"

"I knew trouble was coming; I didn't know she would be abducted."

"What form of trouble did you anticipate?"

"No form in particular."

"Why trouble at all?"

"I knew it was coming."

"But how?"

He hesitated, and then closed his eyes wearily.

"I don't know."

Arthur balanced a quill pen between the first fingers of both hands.

"On Wednesday last your rooms were visited, and the question of a search-warrant raised. You obtained a promise that the warrant would not be applied for if my daughter and Miss Rawnsley were restored within five days. Did you know at that time where they were?"

"No."

"When did you find out?"

"I don't know where Miss Rawnsley is. I didn't know where your daughter was till we came to the house."

"We none of us know our hats are in the hall till we look to make certain," Nigel interrupted; "but you found her?"

"Yes."

"No one told you where she was?" Arthur went on.

"No."

"Then how did you find her?"

"I believe she has told you."

"She has given me Merivale's version. I want yours."

"I don't know."