Shana was listening intently and he went on,
“The footman they had bribed slept in the pantry and when he retired we knew who was intending to betray me and hand over the key of the safe.”
“He had it in his possession?”
“Dawkins found it was missing from the place where he always kept it, but it was not taken until just before he would have gone to his bedroom.”
Shana could see the plot was thickening and then she asked breathlessly,
“Do go on! What happened next?”
“We waited for perhaps a little over half-an-hour and then to our surprise instead of coming as we expected from a window on the ground floor, the two Italians came down the stairs which led directly to the kitchen quarters. They crept along the passage into the pantry and when we thought we had them cornered, we advanced
