Then a thought struck me and I said: "By the way, if it be necessary to keep this matter quiet it will be better to have it if possible a private job for the Detective.

If once a thing gets to Scotland Yard it is out of our power to keep it quiet, and further secrecy may be impossible.

I shall sound Sergeant Daw before he comes up.

If I say nothing, it will mean that he accepts the task and will deal with it privately." Mr.Corbeck answered at once: "Secrecy is everything.

The one thing I dread is that the lamps, or some of them, may be destroyed at once." To my intense astonishment Miss Trelawny spoke out at once, but quietly, in a decided voice: "They will not be destroyed; nor any of them!" Mr.Corbeck actually smiled in amazement.
"How on earth do you know ?" he asked.