"Does a lady named Grey live here?"
"Yes."
"Then I've got to leave this for her, please."
Taking the key from her pocket, Ann Hopley unsuspiciously opened the gate, and held forth her hand to take the parchment. Instead of giving it to her, the man pushed past, inside; and, to Ann Hopley's horror, Mr. Strange and a policeman suddenly appeared, and followed him. She would have closed the gate upon them; and she made a kind of frantic effort to do so: but one woman cannot effect much against three determined men.
"You can shut it now," said Mr. Strange, when they were inside. "Don't be alarmed, my good woman: we have no wish to harm you."
"What do you want?--and why do you force yourselves in, in this way?" she inquired, frightened nearly to death.
"I am a detective officer belonging to the London police force," said Mr. Strange, introducing himself in his true character. "I bring with me a warrant to search the house called the Maze and its out-door premises"--taking the folded paper from the man's hand. "Would you like me to read it to you before I go on?"
"Search them for what!" asked Ann Hopley, feeling angry with herself for her white face. "I don't want to hear anything read. Do you think we have got stolen goods here?--I'm sure you are enough to scare a body's senses away, bursting in like this!"
Mr. Strange slightly laughed. "We are not looking for stolen goods," he said.
"What for then!" resumed the woman, striving to be calm.