usually comes up in the evening."

Fortunately Mrs. Reville had not heard the revolver shots, or she might
have given the alarm to the two men who had secured the professor in the
ruins, and they would very probably have killed him. I took the lady by
strategy. I sent a servant to tell her that Sir Michael wished to speak
to her, a summons which she had evidently been expecting, and I secured
her as she came down the stairs. Then, leaving her and Sir Michael in
charge of Perry and Saunders and a footman, I went with other servants to
rescue Quarles. We took the confederates in the ruins by surprise, but in
my anxiety that no harm should come to the professor, who was bound just
as I had been, they managed to get away.

Now that he was captured, Sir Michael Lavory's pluck entirely deserted
him, and he told us where to find his niece. She was in a secret chamber
under a tower in the ruins. She had been caught that night at the end of
the terrace by Sir Michael's accomplices, had been rendered unconscious
by chloroform, and taken to the tower.

Quarles's deductions so far as they went were right, but they had not
gone nearly far enough. Neither of us had thought of Sir Michael as the
criminal, and had it not been for the maid Perry I have little doubt that
this would have been our last case. Perry herself had not suspected Sir
Michael until that day, but she had always been suspicious of Mrs.
Reville. That morning, however, when Sir Michael arrived at Whiteladies,
she had chanced to overhear a conversation. She heard Sir Michael tell
Mrs. Reville there would be visitors that evening, and suggested that she
should be near the front door at the time to admit them, as it would be
well if they were not seen by the servants. Perry did not understand who
the visitors were to be, but she thought such secrecy might be connected