“Well, you know more about it than we do,” said the local man. “ Mr. Malone tells me that you were on some inquiries about the Streetly House robbery when these people butted in. Do you think they have done any harm to Mrs. Gertstein?”

“I don’t think that likely,” said Labar. He pushed his hand through the other’s arm and led him aside. “Look here,” he said. “This woman will be wanted for a crime which has no direct connection with the Streetly House burglary. She’s probably absconded of her own free will. Now this business is bound to be the talk of the countryside, what with the servants and the men you have brought here. I want it to be regarded outside, as merely a daring raid by armed bandits, whose motives are as much a mystery to us as to anyone else. Can you give your men that impression?”

“Easiest thing in the world. Since I do not know anything myself, it ought to be simple to pretend that I’m bewildered.”