"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Mr. Carrington left some valuable papers in the safe, and he wants them."
Carrington wondered why Norah gazed from him to her sister with so wild an expression.
"Papers?" she murmured.
Kate opened the door. She sprang to her feet in terror and dismay.
"What is it?" cried Carrington, who saw by her expression that something extraordinary had happened.
"They ... it is not there!"
Norah sat down and hid her face on her arms.
Carrington rushed over to the safe, stooped and made a hasty examination. It had been opened by some one who knew the combination! He stood up, a cold chill wrinkling his spine. He saw it all distinctly. Cavenaugh knew. He had known all along. Cavenaugh had overheard him speak to Kate, and had opened the safe after their departure for the club. It was all very cleverly done. He knew that Kate was utterly blameless. Then it dawned upon him that, they appeared as though they accepted the catastrophe as not wholly unexpected! To what did this labyrinth lead?
A rattle of the curtain-rings wheeled them about. They beheld Cavenaugh himself standing in the doorway.