"If you think that Mrs. Jarsell murdered Moon and Durwin, and you have the evidence you speak of, you should reveal all to the police."
"And risk Lillian's life and my own? Freddy, you must take me for a fool." Laurance shook his head. "No. I don't underrate your cleverness, and I see that you are in a tight place. You can't move with safety to yourself and Miss Moon. Yet if you don't move, what is to be done?"
"Well," said Dan, after a pause, "I have a month to think matters out. My idea is to hide Lillian somewhere under the care of Mrs. Bolstreath, and then take action. So long as Lillian is safe I am ready to risk my own life to bring these mysteries to light."
"I am with you," cried Freddy enthusiastically, "it's a good scheme, Dan. I wonder how Miss Moon is to be hidden though; since the Society of Flies may employ spies to find her whereabouts?"
"Oh, every member of the society is a spy," was Halliday's answer, "although I don't know how many members of the gang there are. Penn could have told us, and perhaps could have proved the identity of Mrs. Jarsell with Queen Beelzebub. But he's dead, and----"
"And was murdered," broke in Laurance decisively. "I am quite sure that--because he could prove too much for Mrs. Jarsell's safety--he was got rid of."
"Oh!" Dan looked up with a smile, "then you believe that Mrs. Jarsell----" "I don't know what to believe until more evidence is forthcoming," said the reporter impatiently, "but Miss Moon's hiding-place? Where is it best to place her, with Mrs. Bolstreath as her guardian?" Halliday reflected, and then made the last answer Freddy expected to hear, considering the circumstances. "At Sheepeak with Miss Vincent," he declared. "Dan, are you serious. You place her under the guns of the enemy."
"Quite so, and there has been proof that under the guns is the safest place in some cases. It is in this, I am sure. Should Mrs. Jarsell be the person we suspect her to be, she will not foul her own nest at Sheepeak. Therefore she will not dare to have Lillian killed within a stone-throw of her own house. By daring all, we gain all."
"It's a risk," said Laurance pondering. "I can see that."
"So can I. Everything is risky in this business."