'You may knock, and knock, but it won't be opened. He's gone. That was Horace, dear. How beautifully you knocked him down!'
'What does he want?'
'It's pretty plain. Uncle George's ruby has the attractiveness of the Holy Grail. This is another quest for it.'
'But they'll find it if we stop here.'
'And if we don't stop here, what do you propose to do? Fight them to the death? Nothing else will be efficacious. They're not the persons, and they're not in the mood, to stick at trifles.'
'What a wretch he is! I've heard Guy speak of him, but I'd no idea he was as bad as this.'
'My dear Letty, when a bad man is in a bad hole, you've no notion how bad that man can be. The question now is, Can we get out through the kitchen door, or can they get through the kitchen door to us?'
'Where does that door lead to?'
'Into Louise Casata's bedroom. The beauty of the average flat is that you can always pass from any one room into any other, which, sometimes, is convenient and sometimes isn't. I'm wondering whether Louise is responsible for Horace Burton's presence here, and also where she is. I've reasons for believing that it was not her intention to go out to-night.'
'I shouldn't keep such a woman about my place, if I were you.'