CHAPTER XXX A LEAF FROM THE PAST
Ralph Ravenspur, with Tchigorsky and Geoffrey, sat smoking in the billiard room until Vera came in to say good-night and drive them off to bed. As they were about to separate at the head of the stairs Ralph gave them a sign to follow him.
"Come to my room for half an hour," he said.
The others complied. Tchigorsky slipped away for a while, and on his return he laid the end of a long silk thread on the white table cover.
"Part of a little scheme," he said. "This is one end of the silk thread. Where the other end is matters nothing for the present. Ralph, everybody has retired?"
"Everybody," Ralph replied as he filled his pipe.
"I fancy you said that no servants sleep in the house."
"They have not done so for a long time," Geoffrey explained. "Not that we entertain the least suspicion of any of them. We merely made the change for safety's sake."
Tchigorsky nodded his approval. He arranged the silk thread neatly on the table, coiling the end round a daisy pattern worked into the damask cloth.
"For Mrs. May's benefit?" Geoffrey asked.