On the left-hand side, through the door which had been left ajar, he could hear the click of billiard balls and occasional peals of laughter.

On the right-hand side there was silence.

He moved swiftly across the room and closed the door leading into the billiard room, deposited on the sofa the charts which he had been carrying, and hurried back to the secretary.

With a sickening feeling of overwhelming guilt, he drew from his pocket a key and opened, one by one, the drawers through which they had not searched.

It took him barely five minutes to discover--nothing.