Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V MAYFAIR MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE SACRED VALLEY MATRON BEING a methodical man, I noted the numbers of the notes, and was in the act of writing the last figure when a card was handed to me. It bore the name of Inspector Dove, and in the lower left-hand corner the words ' Scotland Yard.' An elderly, precise-featured man entered the room. I motioned him to a chair, but an apologetic gesture indicated that he preferred to stand. He spoke with a slight stammer. ' I am authorised to offer you an apology, ' he began, inclining his head the fraction of an angle, ' for our p-pre- mature action in searching this apartment. The order was given under a misunderstanding, as we have been informed thaton your departure from B-uckingham Palace, Mr. Kettle himself accompanied you downstairs, and that the door was opened and closed b-behind you by one of the attendants.' I begged him to forget the affair, and was relieved to find, from some further questions I ventured, that Scotland Yard had no knowledge of the Yellow Man. How he obtained admittance to the Palace on the night of the theft I know not to this day. I gathered from Inspector Dove's manner that he guessed I knew more about the vanishing of The Enchanted Stone than was necessary for the editing of a penny popular weekly; but I preserved an enigmatic urbanity of manner, and when at last he departed, quite unsatisfied, I went to Madame de Gruchy's rooms. The offices of The Bee are so well known that I need only describe them cursorily. The friendly six-storied redbrick building, in the Queen Anne style, on the Middlesex side of the river, is, in its way, as striking a landmark as Somerset House or Cleopatra's Needle. High above the roof, supported by slender iron pilasters, floats a gigantic aluminium be...