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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77243 ***
+Dorcas Dene, Detective
+Her adventures
+
+by George R. Sims
+
+Table of Contents
+I. THE COUNCIL OF FOUR
+II. THE HELSHAM MYSTERY
+III. THE MAN WITH THE WILD EYES
+IV. THE SECRET OF THE LAKE
+V. THE DIAMOND LIZARD
+VI. THE PRICK OF A PIN
+VII. THE MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE
+VIII. THE EMPTY HOUSE
+IX. THE CLOTHES IN THE CUPBOARD
+X. THE HAVERSTOCK HILL MURDER
+XI. THE BROWN BEAR LAMP
+
+-----
+
+_I. THE COUNCIL OF FOUR_
+
+When I first knew Dorcas Dene she was Dorcas Lester. She came to me
+with a letter from a theatrical agent, and wanted one of the small
+parts in a play we were then rehearsing at a West End theatre.
+
+She was quite unknown in the profession. She told me that she wanted
+to act, and would I give her a chance? She was engaged for a
+maid-servant who had about two lines to speak. She spoke them
+exceedingly well, and remained at the theatre for nearly twelve
+months, never getting beyond "small parts," but always playing them
+exceedingly well.
+
+The last part she had played was that of an old hag. We were all
+astonished when she asked to be allowed to play it, as she was a
+young and handsome woman, and handsome young women on the stage
+generally like to make the most of their appearance.
+
+As the hag, Dorcas Lester was a distinct success. Although she was
+only on the stage for about ten minutes in one act and five minutes
+in another, everybody talked about her realistic and well-studied
+impersonation.
+
+In the middle of the run of the play she left, and I understood that
+she had married and quitted the profession.
+
+It was eight years before I met her again. I had business with a
+well-known West End solicitor. The clerk, thinking his employer
+alone, ushered me at once into his room. Mr. ---- was engaged in
+earnest conversation with a lady. I apologised. "It's all right,"
+said Mr. ----, "the lady is just going." The lady, taking the hint,
+rose, and went out.
+
+I saw her features as she passed me, for she had not then lowered
+her veil, and they seemed familiar to me.
+
+"Who do you think that was?" said Mr. ---- mysteriously, as the
+door closed behind his visitor.
+
+"I don't know," I said; "but I think I've seen her before somewhere.
+Who is she?"
+
+"That, my dear fellow, is Dorcas Dene, the famous lady detective.
+_You_ may not have heard of her; but with our profession and with
+the police, she has a great reputation."
+
+"Oh! Is she a private inquiry agent, or a female member of the
+Criminal Investigation Department?"
+
+"She holds no official position," replied my friend, "but works
+entirely on her own account. She has been mixed up in some of the
+most remarkable cases of the day--cases that sometimes come into
+court, but which are far more frequently settled in a solicitor's
+office."
+
+"If it isn't an indiscreet question, what is she doing for you? You
+are not in the criminal business."
+
+"No, I am only an old-fashioned, humdrum family solicitor, but I
+have a very peculiar case in hand just now for one of my clients. I
+am not revealing a professional secret when I tell you that young
+Lord Helsham, who has recently come of age, has mysteriously
+disappeared. The matter has already been guardedly referred to in
+the gossip column of the society papers. His mother, Lady Helsham,
+who is a client of mine, has been to me in the greatest distress of
+mind. She is satisfied that her boy is alive and well. The poor lady
+is convinced that it is a case of cherchez la femme, and she is
+desperately afraid that her son, perhaps in the toils of some
+unprincipled woman, may be induced to contract a disastrous 
+mésalliance. That is the only reason she can suggest to me for his
+extraordinary conduct."
+
+"And the famous lady detective who has just left your office is to
+unravel the mystery--is that it?"
+
+"Yes. All our own inquiries having failed, I yesterday decided to
+place the case in her hands, as it was Lady Helsham's earnest desire
+that no communication should be made to the police. She is most
+anxious that the scandal shall not be made a public one. To-day
+Dorcas Dene has all the facts in her possession, and she has just
+gone to see Lady Helsham. And now, my dear fellow, what can I do
+for you?"
+
+My business was a very trifling matter. It was soon discussed and
+settled, and then Mr. ---- invited me to lunch with him at a
+neighbouring restaurant. After lunch I strolled back with him as far
+as his office. As we approached, a hansom cab drove up to the door
+and a lady alighted.
+
+"By Jove! it's your lady detective again," I exclaimed.
+
+The lady detective saw us, and came towards us.
+
+"Excuse me," she said to Mr. ----, "I want just a word or two
+with you."
+
+Something in her voice struck me then, and suddenly I remembered
+where I had seen her before.
+
+"I beg your pardon," I said, "but are we not old friends?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the lady detective with a smile; "I knew you
+at once, but thought you had forgotten me. I have changed a good
+deal since I left the theatre."
+
+"You have changed your name and your profession, but hardly your
+appearance--I ought to have known you at once. May I wait for you
+here while you discuss your business with Mr. ----? I should like
+to have a few minutes' chat with you about old times."
+
+Dorcas Lester--or rather Dorcas Dene, as I must call her now--
+gave a little nod of assent, and I walked up and down the street
+smoking my cigar for fully a quarter of an hour before she 
+reappeared.
+
+"I'm afraid I've kept you waiting a long time," she said pleasantly,
+"and now if you want to talk to me you will have to come home with
+me. I'll introduce you to my husband. You needn't hesitate or think
+you'll be in the way, because, as a matter of fact, directly I saw
+you I made up my mind you could be exceedingly useful to me."
+
+She raised her umbrella and stopped a hansom, and before I quite
+appreciated the situation, we were making our way to St. John's Wood
+as fast as a very bad horse could take us.
+
+On the journey Dorcas Dene was confidential. She told me that she
+had taken to the stage because her father, an artist, had died
+suddenly and left her and her mother nothing but a few unmarketable
+pictures and the unpaid tradesmen's bills to settle.
+
+"Poor dad!" she said. "He was very clever, and he loved us very
+dearly, but he was only a great big boy to the last. When he was
+doing well he spent everything he made and enjoyed life--and when
+he was doing badly he did bills and pawned things, and thought it
+was rather fun. At one time he would be treating us to dinner at
+the Café Royal and the theatre afterwards, and at another time he
+would be showing us how to live as cheaply as he used to do in his
+old Paris days in the Quartier Latin, and cooking our meals himself
+at the studio fire.
+
+"Well, when he died I got on to the stage, and at last--as
+I daresay you remember--I was earning two guineas a week. On
+that I and my mother lived in two rooms in St. Paul's-road,
+Camden Town.
+
+"Then a young artist, a Mr. Paul Dene, who had been our friend and
+constant visitor in my father's lifetime, fell in love with me. He
+had risen rapidly in his profession, and was making money. He had no
+relations, and his income was seven or eight hundred a year, and
+promised to be much larger. Paul proposed to me, and I accepted him.
+He insisted that I should leave the stage, and he would take a
+pretty little house, and mother should come and live with us, and
+we could all be happy together.
+
+"We took the house we are going to now--a sweet little place
+with a lovely garden in Oak Tree-road, St. John's Wood--and for
+two years we were very happy. Then a terrible misfortune happened.
+Paul had an illness and became blind. He would never be able to
+paint again.
+
+"When I had nursed him back to health I found that the interest
+of what we had saved would barely pay the rent of our house. I did
+not want to break up our home--what was to be done? I thought
+of the stage again, and I had just made up my mind to see if I
+could not get an engagement, when chance settled my future for me
+and gave me a start in a very different profession.
+
+"In the next house to us there lived a gentleman, a Mr. Johnson,
+who was a retired superintendent of police. Since his retirement
+he had been conducting a high-class private inquiry business, and
+was employed in many delicate family matters by a well-known firm
+of solicitors who are supposed to have the secrets of half the
+aristocracy locked away in their strong room.
+
+"Mr. Johnson had been a frequent visitor of ours, and there was
+nothing which delighted Paul more in our quiet evenings than a chat
+and a pipe with the genial, good-hearted ex-superintendent of
+police. Many a time have I and my husband sat till the small hours
+by our cosy fireside listening to the strange tales of crime, and
+the unravelling of mysteries which our kind neighbour had to tell.
+There was something fascinating to us in following the slow and
+cautious steps with which our kindly neighbour--who looked more
+like a jolly sea captain than a detective--had threaded his way
+through the Hampton Court maze in the centre of which lay the
+truth which it was his business to discover.
+
+"He must have thought a good deal of Paul's opinion, for after a
+time he would come in and talk over cases which he had in hand--
+without mentioning names when the business was confidential--and
+the view which Paul took of the mystery more than once turned out
+to be the correct one. From this constant association with a
+private detective we began to take a kind of interest in his work,
+and when there was a great case in the papers which seemed to defy
+the efforts of Scotland Yard, Paul and I would talk it over
+together, and discuss it and build up our own theories around it.
+
+"After my poor Paul lost his sight Mr. Johnson, who was a widower,
+would come in whenever he was at home--many of his cases took him
+out of London for weeks together--and help to cheer my poor boy up
+by telling him all about the latest romance or scandal in which he
+had been engaged.
+
+"On these occasions my mother, who is a dear, old-fashioned,
+simple-minded woman, would soon make an excuse to leave us. She
+declared that to listen to Mr. Johnson's stories made her nervous.
+She would soon begin to believe that every man and woman she met
+had a guilty secret, and the world was one great Chamber of Horrors
+with living figures instead of waxwork ones like those of Madame
+Tussaud's.
+
+"I had told Mr. Johnson of our position when I found that it would
+be necessary for me to do something to supplement the hundred a
+year which was all that Paul's money would bring us in, and he had
+agreed with me that the stage afforded the best opening.
+
+"One morning I made up my mind to go to the agent's. I had dressed
+myself in my best and had anxiously consulted my looking-glass. I
+was afraid that my worries and the long strain of my husband's
+illness might have left their mark upon my features and spoilt my
+'market value' in the managerial eye.
+
+"I had taken such pains with myself, and my mind was so concentrated
+upon the object I had in view, that when I was quite satisfied with
+my appearance I ran into our little sitting-room, and, without
+thinking, said to my husband, 'Now I'm off! How do you think I
+look, dear?"
+
+"My poor Paul turned his sightless eyes towards me, and his lip
+quivered. Instantly I saw what my thoughtlessness had done. I flung
+my arms round him and kissed him, and then, the tears in my eyes,
+I ran out of the room and went down the little front garden. When
+I opened the door Mr. Johnson was outside with his hand on the bell.
+
+"'Where are you going?' he said.
+
+"'To the agent, to see about an engagement.'
+
+"'Come back; I want to talk to you.'
+
+"I led the way back to the house, and we went into the dining-room
+which was empty.
+
+"'What do you think you could get on the stage?' he said.
+
+"'Oh, if I'm lucky I may get what I had before--two guineas
+a week. You see, I've never played anything but small parts.'
+
+"'Well then, put off the stage for a little and I can give you
+something that will pay you a great deal better. I've just got a
+case in which I must have the assistance of a lady. The lady who
+had worked for me for the last two years has been idiot enough to
+get married, with the usual consequences, and I'm in a fix.'
+
+"'You--you want me to be a lady detective--to watch
+people?' I gasped. 'Oh, I couldn't!'
+
+"'My dear Mrs. Dene,' Mr. Johnson said gently, 'I have too much
+respect for you and your husband to offer you anything that you
+need be afraid of accepting. I want you to help me to rescue an
+unhappy man who is being so brutally blackmailed that he has run
+away from his broken-hearted wife and his sorrowing children. That
+is surely a business transaction in which an angel could engage
+without soiling its wings.'
+
+"'But I'm not clever at--at that sort of thing!'
+
+"'You are cleverer than you think. I have formed a very high opinion
+of your qualifications for our business. You have plenty of shrewd
+common sense, you are a keen observer, and you have been an actress.
+Come, the wife's family are rich, and I am to have a good round sum
+if I save the poor fellow and get him home again. I can give you
+a guinea a day and your expenses, and you have only to do what I
+tell you.'
+
+"I thought everything over, and then I accepted--on one condition.
+I was to see how I got on before Paul was told anything about it.
+If I found that being a lady detective was repugnant to me--if I
+found that it involved any sacrifice of my womanly instincts--
+I should resign, and my husband would never know that I had done
+anything of the sort.
+
+"Mr. Johnson agreed, and we left together for his office.
+
+"That was how I first became a lady detective. I found that the work
+interested me, and that I was not so awkward as I had expected to
+be. I was successful in my first undertaking, and Mr. Johnson
+insisted on my remaining with him and eventually we became partners.
+A year ago he retired, strongly recommending me to all his clients,
+and that is how you find me to-day a professional lady detective."
+
+"And one of the best in England," I said, with a bow. "My friend
+Mr. -- has told me of your great reputation."
+
+Dorcas Dene smiled.
+
+"Never mind about my reputation," she said. "Here we are at my
+house--now you've got to come in and be introduced to my husband
+and to my mother and to Toddlekins."
+
+"Toddlekins--I beg pardon--that's the baby, I suppose?"
+
+A shade crossed Dorcas Dene's pretty womanly face, and I thought
+I saw her soft grey eyes grow moist.
+
+"No--we have no family. Toddlekins is a dog."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+It was difficult for me to imagine, as I glanced around the
+delightful little drawing-room and noted everywhere the evidences
+of artistic simplicity and refinement, that I was in the house of
+the famous lady detective. I had not been introduced to the blind
+husband many minutes before I felt that we were old friends. Paul
+Dene, the blind artist, interested me at once. A handsome man, well
+above the medium height, with a mass of fair waving hair; there was
+something in the blind, gentle face that riveted your attention and
+claimed your sympathy at once. He rose as his wife entered the room,
+a questioning look upon his face, for my footstep was unfamiliar to
+him. Dorcas Dene took his hand and led him towards me. "Paul, dear,"
+she said, "this is an old friend of mine. This is the gentleman who
+gave me my first chance as an actress."
+
+We chatted together for a few minutes, and then a buxom, grey-haired
+lady came bustling into the room, followed by a big brindle bulldog,
+wagging the whole of his body. He ran to his mistress with a little
+snort of joy, stood up on his hind-legs, and licked her hands
+affectionately, and then turned and looked at me inquiringly.
+
+"Friends, Toddlekins," said his mistress. Then turning to me, she
+added with a smile, "You can pat him quite safely now I have
+introduced you."
+
+"He would come in, Dorcas," exclaimed the middle-aged lady, "and I
+didn't know you had company."
+
+"This is Mr. Saxon, the dramatist, mother."
+
+The old lady gave me a rather distant bow, and eyed me somewhat
+suspiciously. "I've heard of you, sir," she said, "and I know how
+good you were to my daughter years ago, but I don't hold with
+melodramas, and I never shall; and how Christian people can pay
+money to see their fellow-creatures blown up with dynamite, and
+murdered, and condemned to death for what they never did, and
+turned out of house and home to die in the snow, is what I shall
+never understand."
+
+I suppose I looked slightly uncomfortable, for Dorcas Dene broke in
+with a merry little laugh. "Mother doesn't mean any harm, Mr. Saxon,
+it's only her funny little way; she puts us all right here--don't
+you mother dear?"
+
+"I always say what I think," replied the old lady. "It's
+old-fashioned I dare say, but I'm one of the old-fashioned sort.
+But I'd better take the dog out--Mr. Saxon's afraid of him."
+
+"No, no, I assure you," I exclaimed, reddening, "I--I _love_ dogs,"
+and I stooped down and timidly patted Toddlekins, who was sniffing
+suspiciously at my calves.
+
+"You needn't be ashamed of being afraid of Toddlekins," the old
+lady exclaimed, with evident disbelief in my disclaimer. "Most
+people are at first. He hates strangers coming to the place."
+
+I saw a shade of annoyance pass over the blind artist's gentle
+face. "An old friend of my wife's won't be a stranger here very
+long," he said quietly, then gave a little whistle, and the bulldog
+ran quickly across the room and laid his great head on his
+master's knee.
+
+"Well, I suppose I'm wrong as usual!" exclaimed the old lady,
+tossing her head, "but all the same, Mr. Saxon may just as well
+know that the dog nearly killed a man once, and I'm as certain as I
+am that I'm alive that one day he'll kill another if he's ever left
+alone with that young man that comes to wind up the clocks. He's
+taken a dislike to that young man, has Toddlekins, and, Dorcas, my
+dear, don't say I haven't warned you. When it does happen, don't
+expect me to interfere; I was never brought up to bite bulldogs'
+tails to make them leave go, and it's not the sort of thing you can
+ask a respectable servant to do." And with that, the old lady turned
+upon her heel and sailed out of the room, and her daughter followed
+her, evidently to pacify her.
+
+"You mustn't mind Mrs. Lester," said Paul Dene, as the door closed
+behind them. "She's a dear, good soul, really, and I don't know what
+we should do without her; but she has an idea that she is the only
+person in the house who has any sense, and she has a mania for
+speaking what she calls 'her mind.' The dog's as gentle as a lamb,
+but he _did_ once nearly kill a man, and that is how my wife came by
+him. He was reared from a puppy by a rough at the East End. This man
+was constantly ill-using his wife, to whom the dog was devotedly
+attached. One day the man, in a drunken frenzy, knocked his wife
+down. As she lay on the floor, he bent over her, and was about to
+strike her with a poker, when the dog suddenly sprang at him, and
+seized him by the throat, and held him till the neighbours rushed
+in. The dog had saved the woman's life, but the man was terribly
+injured, and it was a question with the police of having the dog
+killed, when my wife, who had heard the story, asked the officer in
+charge of the case to let her have him; and Toddlekins has been our
+faithful friend and guardian ever since."
+
+I looked at Toddlekins, who had curled himself up at his master's
+feet and was sleeping with one eye open, and I made up my mind that
+when I said "Good-bye" to Dorcas Dene, I would put out my hand in a
+manner that should not admit of the slightest misinterpretation,
+and I was rather relieved when Paul Dene turned the conversation on
+to another topic.
+
+He presumed I was aware of his wife's present profession. I
+explained how I had met her at the solicitor's, and that she had
+told me I might be of use to her in the case on which she was
+present engaged. Had he heard the particulars?
+
+He said he had not, as his wife had only received her instructions
+that day, but in all business matters she invariably consulted him.
+"You see," he said, "my blindness is a very valuable quality. Seeing
+nothing physically, my mental vision is intensified. I can think a
+problem out undisturbed by the surroundings which distract people
+who have their eyesight. When people want 'a good think,' as they
+call it, they often shut themselves in a room and close their eyes.
+I am a man who is always thinking with closed eyes. In all her
+difficulties my wife comes to me, and generally we hold a council
+of four."
+
+"Of four?"
+
+"Yes, the council consists of myself, Dorcas, her mother, and
+Toddlekins."
+
+I was obliged to give a little laugh. "I should hardly have thought
+that Mrs. Lester could have been of much service in unravelling
+a mystery."
+
+"That is where you are wrong. Mrs. Lester often hits the right nail
+on the head before either of us. We are building up an elaborate
+theory, and she takes a plain, straightforward, matter-of-fact,
+common-sense view, and it turns out to be the right one. Detectives
+are only human, you know, and, like the rest of the world, they
+frequently go looking about in every direction for something that
+lies close to their hand all the time."
+
+At that moment the door opened, and I started up in astonishment. A
+dark-skinned old gipsy woman, such as one meets on the racecourses,
+had come into the room.
+
+I gave a nervous look at the bulldog, expecting him to spring at the
+intruder. But he only opened his eyes and wagged his tail, and then
+the truth suddenly flashed upon me.
+
+It was Dorcas Dene. "Mr. Saxon," she said, "they are playing a gipsy
+play at the theatre; I want you to go with me to the manager, and get
+him to let me go on with the gipsy crowd at the end of the third
+act." And then she added with a little laugh, "I told you you would
+be useful to me."
+
+"But I thought you were going to investigate the mysterious
+disappearance of young Lord Helsham?" I stammered.
+
+"Exactly--that's why I want to get behind the scenes of the
+------ Theatre. Unless I am very much mistaken, that is where
+'the lady in the case' is most likely to be found."
+
+"But we can't go together through the street with
+you--ahem!--like that."
+
+Dorcas Dene laughed. "No, I want you to meet me outside the theatre
+at eight o'clock, and get me engaged at once as a real gipsy super.
+I'm sure you can manage that for me. I thought, before you left, you
+had better see me exactly as I shall meet you to-night. And now, good
+afternoon and au revoir."
+
+"You think you will find Lord Helsham, then? You have a clue to the
+mystery already?"
+
+"I may find Lord Helsham to-night if you get me behind the scenes,
+but as to the clue to the mystery of his disappearance, that is
+quite another matter. And now I rely upon you. Until eight o'clock
+this evening, au revoir."
+
+I shook hands cordially with Dorcas Dene and her blind husband, and
+patted Toddlekins respectfully. A minute afterwards, I was out in
+the quiet little road trying to think out the mystery for myself.
+
+Here was a young nobleman, his own master, and free to do as he
+chose, and yet he had deliberately left his mother a prey to the
+greatest anxiety as to his whereabouts. There was no necessity for
+him to "disappear," to carry on an intrigue, or even to contract an
+undesirable marriage.
+
+Not even in the days of my youthful romance had I waited so eagerly
+for the hour and the lady, as I waited that evening for eight
+o'clock and Dorcas Dene.
+
+
+
+_II. THE HELSHAM MYSTERY_
+
+I sat in the stalls watching the third act of the great gipsy drama,
+which had drawn all London to the ------ Theatre. I had persuaded the
+manager, with whom I was on friendly terms, to allow Dorcas Dene, the
+famous lady detective, to have the use of his stage for her own
+purposes, disguised as a gipsy super.
+
+But she had so far refused to tell me the name of the actress through
+whom she expected to run young Lord Helsham to earth that evening,
+or at least to be able to learn why he had disappeared.
+
+It had been agreed between us that after the third act was over I
+should go behind, and she would then be able to communicate with me.
+
+Directly the curtain was down the manager joined me, and took me
+through the private door and left me on the stage. The old gipsy
+woman was waiting about for me in a quiet corner.
+
+"What success?" I asked eagerly.
+
+Without replying to my question, Dorcas Dene gripped me excitedly
+by the arm.
+
+"Get a hansom to the stage-door," she said. "I want you to come with
+me somewhere."
+
+I glanced hesitatingly at her costume.
+
+"Don't be afraid," she said. "The cloak I brought with me will cover
+all this, and I have a thick veil in my pocket."
+
+I went out to get a hansom, and it was barely at the door before
+Dorcas Dene was by my side. She sprang lightly in and motioned me to
+follow, telling the cabman to drive to Grosvenor Square.
+
+"You are going to see Lady Helsham?" I said.
+
+"Yes, I must. Lord Helsham is on the point of committing suicide."
+
+"How on earth have you found that out?" I gasped.
+
+"By a very simple process. Lady Helsham, in our interview this
+morning, gave me a photograph which she had found among her son's
+papers. It was the photograph of a very beautiful girl taken in stage
+costume. On the back of it was written, 'To dearest Bertie, from
+Nella.' The photographer was Alfred Ellis, of Baker Street, who--it
+being a theatrical photograph taken for public sale--had printed
+beneath it, 'Miss Nella Dalroy, in "The Gipsy Wife."'"
+
+"Ah, now I understand why you wanted to get behind the scenes
+to-night. You wanted to see Nella Dalroy."
+
+"Exactly. Lord Helsham's name is Bertie. Now a girl who puts 'To
+dearest Bertie, from Nella,' is either engaged to him, or, for the
+sake of her morals, ought to be. You understand?"
+
+"Yes--I begin to understand."
+
+"To-night I was able to watch Miss Dalroy narrowly. I could see that
+she was prey to some great anxiety. Once she nearly broke down, and
+went on with her part with the greatest difficulty. I was sure then
+that young Lord Helsham's disappearance was not to the advantage of
+Nella Dalroy.
+
+"During the second act she had to wait, and she stood at the wings.
+One of the young ladies of the company, evidently her friend, came
+and talked to her, and I managed to overhear a little of the
+conversation.
+
+"'Haven't you heard anything more?' said her friend.
+
+"'Yes--to-night just as I left home--a letter telling me that he sees
+no way out of his trouble, and that I must forget him, and that we
+shall never meet again--and--and'--here her voice quivered--'he says
+he has left me all that he has a right to leave me. Oh, what can he
+mean by that?'
+
+"At that moment Miss Dalroy's cue came, and she went on the stage.
+It was fortunate for her that it was a tearful scene she was playing,
+or her agitation must have been noticeable."
+
+Dorcas Dene leant back in the hansom, lost in thought.
+
+After a moment's silence I ventured to ask her how she arrived at
+the conclusion that Lord Helsham contemplated suicide.
+
+"What else can it mean?" she answered, half speaking to herself.
+"'I have left you all I have a right to leave.' If he thought of
+himself in the future as a _living_ man, he would have said, 'I
+will _give_ you all.'"
+
+I shook my head, and murmured that I really couldn't see any possible
+reason why a wealthy young nobleman who was his own master should put
+an end to his life after making a will in favour of a pretty actress
+who was deeply in love with him.
+
+"Nor I," replied Dorcas Dene. "But I am engaged to restore her son to
+Lady Helsham, and it is my duty to restore him alive if possible. But
+here we are at Grosvenor Square."
+
+I got out and assisted Dorcas Dene to alight. "May I wait for you?"
+I said.
+
+"Not here. But you will do me a great service if you will take the
+cab and go on to Oak Tree Road, and tell my husband I shall be home
+some time to-night."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+It was past midnight when Dorcas Dene joined the little family circle
+at Oak Tree Road. Paul Dene, the blind artist, had invited me to
+stay and keep him company until his wife returned.
+
+A few minutes later, the lady detective, divested of her war-paint,
+was leaning back in the arm-chair and "stating her case," in order
+that she might have the opinion of her husband and her mother
+upon it.
+
+Briefly and concisely Dorcas Dene put her "points."
+
+"Here is the case so far as I've gone," she said. "Lord Helsham left
+Grosvenor Square last week after a 'few words' with his mother. What
+those 'words' were about, she will not tell me. 'Family matters' is
+all the explanation I can get from her. He has not been to his club
+or to his country house, or any hotel in his right name, because
+inquiries in these directions had been exhausted before I was called
+in. He is in great distress of mind about something, because he has
+written a heart-broken letter to the girl he probably intended to
+marry. She is evidently still devoted to him, so that love has
+nothing to do with his mental condition. If love is not the cause of
+his extraordinary behaviour, what _can_ be?"
+
+The blind artist, who had sat silently listening, turned his
+sightless eyes towards his wife. "Mr. Saxon has told us, Dorcas, that
+you had an idea the poor fellow contemplated suicide, and he has told
+us how you arrived at that conclusion. If you reject love and
+insanity there is only one other thing that will drive a man to
+deliberate suicide."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"Fear."
+
+Dorcas laid her hand gently on her husband's arm. "Yes, your thought
+is mine, dear," she said softly, "but what does he fear?"
+
+"What did his mother say to-night, when you told her what your
+discoveries had led you to believe?"
+
+"Although, of course, she was horrified, and for a time upset, she
+really seemed--how shall I put it?--rather relieved in her mind!"
+
+"Relieved to hear her son was likely to kill himself!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Lester indignantly.
+
+"Well, perhaps relieved is hardly the word. She has seemed to me all
+along to be in a state of nervous terror as to something _dreadful_
+being likely to happen, and when I suggested suicide it seemed as
+though _that_ was not the worst that she had contemplated. That's
+what I meant by its being a relief to her."
+
+"Whatever is it that Lord Helsham fears," murmured the blind artist,
+"it is evident that his mother fears it also. No other theory would
+account for her being 'relieved'--as you call it--by the idea
+that he has suicide in his mind."
+
+"Yes," said Dorcas Dene, "and she can only feel that relief for two
+reasons--either that his death would prevent his arrest for some
+crime, or would prevent the discovery of something which would bring
+terrible consequences to him."
+
+"Or to her," said Paul, quietly.
+
+Dorcas Dene started.
+
+"Yes!" she cried, springing to her feet, "that's it--that would
+account for everything."
+
+"What sort of person is this Lady Helsham?" I asked, venturing to
+join in the council.
+
+Dorcas Dene drew her notebook from her pocket. "Here is the family
+history as I got it from Mr. ---- when I took up the case. The late
+Lord Helsham married a young Scotch lady who was a member of a
+travelling opera troupe."
+
+"Heredity again!" murmured Paul. "The son falls in love with an
+actress."
+
+"Two years after their marriage the Earl was killed by a fall from
+his horse in the hunting-field. The next heir was the Earl's younger
+brother, the Hon. John Farman, but the peerage had to remain in
+abeyance pending the accouchement of Lady Helsham, an event which
+occurred prematurely a month later."
+
+"And the child born a month after its father's death was the present
+Lord Helsham?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorcas Dene, "that is so. Here are some further
+particulars. Lady Helsham some years later adopted her sister's
+little girl, a child of the same age as her son, and the children
+were brought up together until lately, when her ladyship endeavoured
+to bring about a marriage between the two. But his lordship informed
+his mother that the idea was entirely repugnant to him, and
+eventually the young lady left the family mansion and went back to
+reside with her real mother in Scotland. Mr. ---- said he gave me
+these particulars as it was possible, though not probable, that
+ill-feeling had come between the mother and son through this young
+lady. And it was concerning her that the 'words' occurred which
+preceded Lord Helsham's departure from his home."
+
+"And that view of the case you have not thought out at all, Dorcas?"
+asked Paul Dene.
+
+"No, I thought it better to look for the girl Lord Helsham was
+likely to go after than for the one he was likely to avoid.
+But----" Dorcas Dene rose and began to pace the room. No one
+spoke a word. Suddenly she came up to me and held out her hand.
+
+"Good-night," she said. "I am so much obliged to you for all your
+help to-day. Come and see us again soon, won't you?"
+
+"But I should like to know more about this case," I said; "I am
+much interested in it, you know."
+
+"Yes, I quite understand that," replied the lady detective, "but
+I am afraid it will turn out a far more difficult business than I
+imagined when I undertook it. Good-night."
+
+There was nothing for me to do but shake hands all round and make as
+dignified an exit as was possible under the circumstances.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+A few days afterwards business called me to Paris, and it was quite
+a fortnight later that sitting one evening outside the Café de
+la Paix reading the "Daily Telegraph" the name of Lord Helsham
+caught my eye, and I turned eagerly to an article headed, "A Mystery
+Cleared Up," and read the following:
+
+"The mystery surrounding the strange disappearance of Lord Helsham
+has at last been elucidated. His lordship's clothes and watch and
+scarf-pin have been found in a small cave on the coast near Cromer.
+It is supposed that his lordship, who must have been staying in the
+neighbourhood incognito, and who was an expert swimmer, had gone out
+early in the morning to bathe from the shore. The supposition is that
+he was seized with cramp and sank unobserved, that part of the coast
+being a secluded and lonely one. It is not probable after this lapse
+of time that the body will be recovered. The missing nobleman was
+traced, and the discovery made, by the famous lady detective
+Mrs. Dorcas Dene. Lord Helsham is succeeded by his uncle, the
+Hon. John Farman, who is unmarried."
+
+Immediately on my return to town I hastened to call at Oak Tree
+Road. Dorcas Dene was out in the pretty little garden at the back
+reading to her husband, who was sitting under the trees in a great
+wicker chair. Toddlekins, the bulldog, was lying stretched out in
+the sunshine.
+
+As I looked at the little group from the dining-room window, I could
+not help thinking how far removed the loving and tender wife devoting
+herself to the blind husband seemed from the woman who had unravelled
+the mystery of the tragic fate of young Lord Helsham.
+
+The servant took my card to her mistress, and Dorcas Dene came in
+smiling and happy, and gave me a sweet, womanly welcome.
+
+"Won't you come into the garden? Paul will be so pleased," she said.
+
+I shook my head. "Presently. But first I want to know about the
+Helsham case. I think you ought to tell me, because once--just for
+a little time--we were partners in this business, you know."
+
+Dorcas Dene's gentle face became suddenly grave. "Yes," she said
+thoughtfully, "I suppose I ought to tell you. Sit down and you shall
+hear the story of what happened after you left that night in as few
+words as possible, for I want to get back to the book I am reading
+to Paul. It's a sweet book, and we're just in the middle of it. You
+ought to read it. It is 'The Man who was Good.'"
+
+"Never mind about the man who was good, I want to hear about the
+woman who was clever. How did you find poor Lord Helsham, and what
+was the cause of his unhappy fate?"
+
+"You remember our conversation the night we parted," said Dorcas
+Dene. "The next morning at nine o'clock I went straight to the
+residence of the Hon. John Farman, the person who would succeed to
+the title if anything happened to Lord Helsham. He had heard of the
+disappearance, but concluded it was some temporary feminine
+entanglement. I showed him how necessary it was that he should be
+one of the earliest to know of his nephew's fate, and begged him to
+tell me anything that would assist me in my enquiries. Having
+already certain ideas in my head, I asked him if he knew where Lord
+Helsham was born, and he told me that Lady Helsham was confined at
+the house of her sister, the wife of a captain in the merchant
+service, who had at the time just sailed for Australia. This sister
+was residing in Scotland, and Lady Helsham had gone to her in the
+early days of her widowhood. Mr. Farman himself was absent from
+England at the time on a hunting expedition in the Rockies, and it
+was not until a later period that he received the news of his
+brother's death and the birth of an heir.
+
+"'Had the child been a girl you would have inherited everything?'
+
+"'With the exception of the income secured to Lady Helsham, yes. As
+it was a boy--'
+
+"'You accepted the situation. And when Lady Helsham returned to
+London she brought her child with her, of course?'
+
+"'Yes. I arrived a few days after her return. We were not friendly
+during my brother's lifetime, but I desired to show every courtesy
+I could to the widow.'
+
+"'And as the child grew up you saw him----'
+
+"'Frequently. He was very much attached to me, and latterly my nephew
+and myself have been on very friendly terms.'
+
+"'But you have not assisted in any way in endeavouring to find him?'
+
+"'No. I called on Lady Helsham, and she declared there was no cause
+for alarm. It was an entanglement. She begged me to do nothing for
+fear of making a scandal. That is why I am rather astonished to
+learn that she has employed professional assistance' (he bowed to me)
+'and let me know nothing about it.'
+
+"'And Lady Helsham's sister and the captain?'
+
+"'The sister is the mother of the little girl Lady Helsham afterwards
+adopted. I understood when this young lady left Grosvenor Square, she
+had gone back to her mother, who is now a widow.'
+
+"'And now will you tell me what sort of a young man Lord Helsham was.
+Was he flighty, weak-minded, dissipated, cunning?'
+
+"'Oh, no,' replied Mr. Farman, 'he was a most lovable and amiable
+young fellow--highly strung, and sensitive to a degree--romantic
+undoubtedly, but the soul of honour.'
+
+"I bade Mr. Farman good-day, promising him the earliest information,
+and went to the ------ Theatre. There I ascertained the address
+of Miss Dalroy, and at once sought an interview with her, telling
+her frankly that I was trying to find her lover and restore him to
+his friends.
+
+"With tears in her eyes she offered to give me any assistance she
+could. She told me Lord Helsham had promised to marry her, and she
+showed me the letters she had had since his disappearance. They all
+spoke of a great shock he had received, and one of them of 'a
+terrible discovery which must separate them for ever.' It was not
+concerning her, but a matter relating to his own family.
+
+"By this time I was convinced that the idea which had come to me
+when I so rudely asked you to take your departure was the key to the
+mystery. I _knew_ after reading those letters what the skeleton
+in the Helsham family cupboard was, and I understood the dilemma in
+which the high-spirited and honourable young man suddenly found
+himself.
+
+"I asked Miss Dalroy to let me see the last envelope she had
+received. Fortunately she had kept the letter in it, and showed it
+to me.
+
+"The letter had been posted in Dunkeld. Dunkeld was in Scotland.
+That was where Lady Helsham's adopted daughter was--that was where
+Lady Helsham's sister lived, the sister in whose house Lord Helsham
+had been born. It was there that I should probably get the latest
+news of him.
+
+"I went home, and flinging a few things into a Gladstone bag, caught
+the first train North. Twelve hours later I was in Dunkeld. A few
+hurried inquiries of the railway porters at the station, and the
+solitary flyman outside, and at the little station hotel, told me
+that I was, as they say in the sensational detective stories, 'on the
+track.' A young gentleman answering the description I have of Lord
+Helsham had come there a few days previously. The flyman had driven
+him to the house of Mrs. ----, the merchant captain's widow, which
+was nearly five miles from the station, and nothing had been seen of
+him since.
+
+"When the flyman had deposited me at the house, I made my way up the
+pathway with a fluttering heart, for in spite of my profession, I
+have still that feminine weakness in moments of excitement. The door
+was opened by an old Scotch servant. I asked for Mrs. ----, and
+without waiting for an answer walked straight into a room where I
+could hear voices.
+
+"An elderly spectacled man was talking with a widow lady. As I
+entered I caught one sentence--but that was music in my ears.
+
+"'There's not the slightest danger--it's a feverish cold--but the
+poor young fellow is very low and nervous. I should note leave him
+alone.'
+
+"It was a doctor who was speaking. I didn't want to guess twice who
+the poor young gentleman was.
+
+"The widow lady started as I entered and angrily asked me what
+I wanted.
+
+"'A few words with you alone,' I answered. The doctor bowed and
+left us together.
+
+"'Who are you?' exclaimed the widow, betraying her nervous agitation
+in her manner, 'and what do you want with me?'
+
+"'My name is Dorcas Dene--I come from Lady Helsham with a message
+for her son.
+
+"'You know----!' gasped the widow.
+
+"'That he is here and upstairs ill--yes. This _terrible discovery_
+has been a severe shock to him.'
+
+"At the words 'terrible discovery' the widow lady reeled and caught
+a chair for support.
+
+"'You know that--Lady Helsham has told you?'
+
+"'I had to know,' I answered, evading the question. 'Now for the sake
+of everybody we must decide what is the best to be done to avoid
+scandal. He talks of killing himself, but that is cowardly. What do
+_you_ think can be done?'
+
+"It was a trap and the woman fell into it.
+
+"'I don't know,' she gasped. 'Bertie declares that if he lives he
+will not retain the title or the property. He says that his death is
+the only thing that can save me and my sister from--from----' She
+hesitated; then with a sudden terror that she had betrayed too much,
+she cried, 'But if you know--tell me _what_ you know.'
+
+"'Only what I was bound to know to be of any use in the case,' I
+said, quietly. 'That the child which Lady Helsham bore in this house
+was not the child she returned to London with as the heir. He has
+discovered that he has unwittingly dispossessed another of the title
+and estates, and he refuses to be a party to the fraud any longer.
+The only way in which he can restore them is by dying. To publish the
+truth now would be to put Lady Helsham in the dock, and, as you say,
+you also, for you were a party to the imposture.'
+
+"'It was my sister who persuaded me--who took my baby boy from me
+and left the girl at home with me. My husband was away. Only the old
+servant you have just seen was with me, and she cannot read or write.
+It was so simple and--and----'
+
+"'And the doctor?'
+
+"She hesitated. 'Why do you ask these questions of me? If you know
+all Lady Helsham must have told you.'
+
+"'I have come from Lady Helsham to find her son--the rest I have
+learned for myself. Now you must tell me everything or I cannot
+help you. If I abandon the case it will be taken up by the police.'
+
+"I succeeded at last in showing the unhappy woman that she must make
+a clean breast of it, and she confessed everything. There was no idea
+of fraud at first. Lady Helsham came to her sister, who was alone and
+expecting her confinement. It was the coincidence of her own child
+being born prematurely, and within twenty-four hours of her sister's,
+that made Lady Helsham grasp at the idea. Had she confessed that her
+child was a girl she would have had to give up everything--except her
+allowance under the will--to her husband's brother. The captain's
+wife was attended by a local midwife. The doctor from the nearest
+town sent for to Lady Helsham was away at a consultation, and only
+returned twenty-four hours after the premature birth of her child.
+When he arrived he simply saw that his patient was doing well. The
+sisters had by that time agreed on the fraud with the assistance of
+the midwife, who received a good allowance from Lady Helsham for her
+assistance. The doctor left, fully assured that Lady Helsham had
+given birth to a son, and from that hour the fraud became a simple
+one. The only person who might have betrayed them was the simple
+Scotch servant, who probably was too ignorant to understand what had
+been done or too terrified to open her mouth afterwards, for fear of
+being looked upon as an accomplice.
+
+"This was the Helsham mystery. Lady Helsham had, it seems, in her
+rage at her supposed son's refusal to marry her real daughter, whom
+she loved and desired to benefit, involuntarily revealed her secret,
+threatening the young fellow with the loss of everything if
+he refused.
+
+"Thereupon he quitted the house, but he feared to tell the truth,
+because he would be giving up his own mother to a long term of penal
+servitude. In his overwrought frame of mind he saw only one
+loophole--suicide. His death would allow the title and estates to
+pass to the rightful owner without the fraud being discovered and
+the guilty parties punished.
+
+"He had gone to bid his mother--whom he had hitherto only regarded
+as his aunt--farewell, and tell her what he intended to do, had
+broken do, had broken down, and had been unable to leave the house
+again."
+
+"But he committed suicide after all!" I exclaimed.
+
+Dorcas Dene smiled. "No, I arranged that. I knew that for the young
+man's sake the real Lord Helsham would spare the guilty mother if
+possible. I persuaded the young man to let me take his watch and
+clothes. I selected a place as far away from the hiding place of the
+missing man as possible, and decided on the Norfolk coast, near
+Cromer. I found the clothes where I put them."
+
+"And the real Lord Helsham knows?"
+
+"Everything. No good purpose would have been served by prosecuting
+the two women. The new Lord Helsham insisted on a written confession
+from all concerned, which he retains for his own protection. As I
+was employed by one of the guilty parties, it would have been
+unprofessional of me to give them to justice."
+
+"And the young man himself?"
+
+"Is rapidly recovering from his illness in that quiet and lonely
+little house in his identity. Lord Helsham has behaved handsomely.
+He wishes his 'nephew' to marry in his real name the girl he loves,
+and the young couple will presently go by separate routes to America,
+and there be united, and, as they love each other, will be able to
+live happily on the income Lord Helsham will allow them. Of course
+if any difficulty should arise with regard to the succession the
+truth will have to be known. Until then it is 'our' secret. In the
+meantime Lady Helsham has wisely decided to live abroad, and only
+her solicitor is aware of her address.
+
+"And now you know all about the Helsham mystery. Come into the
+garden and see Paul, and tell me what you think of the new collar
+I've bought Toddlekins for his birthday."
+
+"But," I exclaimed, "the new Lord Helsham is compounding a felony,
+and--well, is it wise of him, seeing that the young man _is_
+still alive?"
+
+Dorcas Dene shrugged her shoulders. "My dear Mr. Saxon," she said,
+"if everybody did the legal thing and the wise thing, there would be
+very little work left for a lady detective."
+
+
+
+_III. THE MAN WITH THE WILD EYES_
+
+I had become a constant visitor at Oak Tree Road. I had conceived a
+great admiration for the brave and yet womanly woman who, when her
+artist husband was stricken with blindness, and the future looked
+dark for both of them, had gallantly made the best of her special
+gifts and opportunities and nobly undertaken a profession which was
+not only a harassing and exhausting one for a woman, but by no means
+free from grave personal risks.
+
+Dorcas Dene was always glad to welcome me for her husband's sake.
+"Paul has taken to you immensely," she said to me one afternoon,
+"and I hope you will call in and spend an hour or two with him
+whenever you can. My cases take me away from home so much--he cannot
+read, and my mother, with the best intentions in the world, can never
+converse with him for more than five minutes without irritating him.
+Her terribly matter of fact views of life are, to use his own
+expression, absolutely 'rasping' to his dreamy, artistic
+temperament."
+
+I had plenty of spare time on my hands, and so it became my custom
+to drop in two or three times a week, and smoke a pipe and chat with
+Paul Dene. His conversation was always interesting, and the gentle
+resignation with which he bore his terrible affliction quickly won
+my heart. But I am not ashamed to confess that my frequent journeys
+to Oak Tree Road were also largely influenced by my desire to see
+Dorcas Dene, and hear more of her strange adventures and experiences
+as a lady detective.
+
+From the moment she knew that her husband valued my companionship she
+treated me as one of the family, and when I was fortunate enough to
+find her at home, she discussed her professional affairs openly
+before me. I was grateful for this confidence, and frequently I was
+able to assist her by going about with her in cases where the
+presence of a male companion was a material advantage to her. I had
+upon one occasion laughingly dubbed myself her "assistant," and by
+that name I was afterwards generally known. There was only one
+drawback to the pleasure I felt at being associated with Dorcas Dene
+in her detective work. I saw that it would be quite impossible for
+me to avoid reproducing my experiences in some form or other. One
+day I broached the subject to her cautiously.
+
+"Are you not afraid of the assistant one day revealing the
+professional secrets of his chief?" I said.
+
+"Not at all," replied Dorcas (everybody called her Dorcas, and I
+fell into the habit when I found that she and her husband preferred
+it to the formal "Mrs. Dene"); "I am quite sure that you will not be
+able to resist the temptation."
+
+"And you don't object?"
+
+"Oh, no, but with this stipulation, that you will use the material
+in such a way as not to identify any of the cases with the real
+parties concerned."
+
+That lifted a great responsibility from my shoulders, and made me
+more eager than ever to prove myself a valuable "assistant" to the
+charming lady who honoured me with her confidence.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+We were sitting in the dining-room one evening after dinner.
+Mrs. Lester was looking contemptuously over the last number of the
+"Queen", and wondering out loud what on earth young women were
+coming to with their tailor-mades and their bicycle costumes. Paul
+was smoking the old briar-root pipe which had been his constant
+companion in the studio when he was able to paint, poor fellow, and
+Dorcas was lying down on the sofa. Toddlekins, nestled up close to
+her, was snoring gently after the manner of his kind.
+
+Dorcas had had a hard and exciting week, and had not been ashamed to
+confess that she felt a little played out. She had just succeeded in
+rescuing a young lady of fortune from the toils of an unprincipled
+Russian adventurer, and stopping the marriage almost at the altar
+rails by the timely production of the record of the would-be
+bridegroom, which she obtained with the assistance of M. Goron, the
+head of the French detective police. It was a return compliment.
+Dorcas had only a short time previously undertaken for M. Goron a
+delicate investigation, in which the son of one of the noblest
+houses in France was involved, and had nipped in the bud a scandal
+which would have kept the Boulevards chattering for a month.
+
+Paul and I were conversing below our voices, for Dorcas's measured
+breathing showed us that she had fallen into a doze.
+
+Suddenly Toddlekins opened his eyes and uttered an angry bark. He
+had heard the front gate bell.
+
+A minute later the servant entered and handed a card to her
+mistress, who, with her eyes still half closed, was sitting up on
+the sofa.
+
+"The gentleman says he must see you at once, ma'am, on business of
+the greatest importance."
+
+Dorcas looked at the card. "Show the gentleman into the dining-room,"
+she said to the servant, "and say that I will be with him directly."
+
+Then she went to the mantel-glass and smoothed away the evidence of
+her recent forty winks. "Do you know him at all?" she said, handing
+me the card.
+
+"Colonel Hargreaves, Orley Park, near Godalming." I shook my head,
+and Dorcas, with a little tired sigh, went to see her visitor.
+
+A few minutes later the dining-room bell rang, and presently the
+servant came into the drawing-room. "Please, sir," she said,
+addressing me, "mistress says will you kindly come to her at once?"
+
+When I entered the dining-room I was astonished to see an elderly,
+soldierly-looking man lying back unconscious in the easy chair, and
+Dorcas Dene bending over him.
+
+"I don't think it's anything but a faint," she said. "He's very
+excited and over-wrought, but if you'll stay here I'll go and get
+some brandy. You had better loosen his collar--or shall we send for
+a doctor?"
+
+"No, I don't think it is anything serious," I said, after a hasty
+glance at the invalid.
+
+As soon as Dorcas had gone I began to loosen the Colonel's cravat,
+but I had hardly commenced before, with a deep sigh, he opened his
+eyes and came to himself.
+
+"You're better now," I said. "Come--that's all right."
+
+The Colonel stared about him for a moment, and then said,
+"I--I--where is the lady?"
+
+"She'll be here in a moment. She's gone to get some brandy."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right now, thank you. I suppose it was the excitement,
+and I've been travelling, had nothing to eat, and I'm so terribly
+upset. I don't often do this sort of thing, I assure you."
+
+Dorcas returned with the brandy. The Colonel brightened up directly
+she came into the room. He took the glass she offered him and
+drained the contents.
+
+"I'm all right now," he said. "Pray let me get on with my story.
+I hope you will be able to take the case up at once. Let me
+see--where was I?"
+
+He gave a little uneasy glance at me. "You can speak without reserve
+before this gentleman," said Dorcas. "It is possible he may be able
+to assist us if you wish me to come to Orley Park at once. So far you
+have told me that your only daughter, who is five-and-twenty, and
+lives with you, was found last night on the edge of the lake in your
+grounds, half in the water and half out. She was quite insensible,
+and was carried into the house and put to bed. You were in London at
+the time, and returned to Orley Park this morning in consequence of
+a telegram you received. That is as far as you had got when you
+became ill."
+
+"Yes--yes!" exclaimed the Colonel, "but I am quite well again now.
+When I arrived at home this morning shortly before noon I was
+relieved to find that Maud--that is my poor girl's name--was quite
+conscious, and the doctor had left a message that I was not to be
+alarmed, and that he would return and see me early in the afternoon.
+
+"I went at once to my daughter's room and found her naturally in a
+very low, distressed state. I asked her how it had happened, as I
+could not understand it, and she told me that she had gone out in
+the grounds after dinner and must have turned giddy when by the edge
+of the lake and fallen in."
+
+"Is it a deep lake?" asked Dorcas.
+
+"Yes, in the middle, but shallow near the edge. It is a largish lake,
+with a small fowl island in the centre, and we have a boat upon it."
+
+"Probably it was a sudden fainting fit--such as you yourself have
+had just now. Your daughter may be subject to them."
+
+"No, she is a thoroughly strong, healthy girl."
+
+"I am sorry to have interrupted you," said Dorcas; "pray go on, for
+I presume there is something behind this accident besides a fainting
+fit, or you would not have come to engage my services in the matter."
+
+"There is a great deal more behind it," replied Colonel Hargreaves,
+pulling nervously at his grey moustache. "I left my daughter's
+bedside devoutly thankful that Providence had preserved her from such
+a dreadful death, but when the doctor arrived he gave me a piece of
+information which caused me the greatest uneasiness and alarm."
+
+"He didn't believe in the fainting fit?" said Dorcas, who had been
+closely watching the Colonel's features.
+
+The Colonel looked at Dorcas Dene in astonishment. "I don't know how
+you have divined that," he said, "but your surmise is correct. The
+doctor told me that he had questioned Maud himself, and she had told
+him the same story--sudden giddiness and a fall into the water. But
+he had observed that on her throat there were certain marks, and
+that her wrists were bruised.
+
+"When he told me this I did not at first grasp his meaning. 'It must
+have been the violence of the fall,' I said.
+
+"The doctor shook his head and assured me that no accident would
+account for the marks his experienced eye had detected. The marks
+round the throat must have been caused by the clutch of an assailant.
+The wrists could only have been bruised in the manner they were by
+being held in a violent and brutal grip."
+
+Dorcas Dene, who had been listening apparently without much interest,
+bent eagerly forward as the Colonel made this extraordinary
+statement. "I see," she said. "Your daughter told you that she had
+fallen into the lake, and the doctor assures you that she must have
+told you an untruth. She had been pushed or flung in by someone
+else after a severe struggle."
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"And the young lady, when you questioned her further, with this
+information in your possession, what did she say?"
+
+"She appeared very much excited, and burst into tears. When I
+referred to the marks on her throat, which were now beginning to
+show discoloration more distinctly, she declared that she had
+invented the story of the faint in order not to alarm me--that she
+had been attacked by a tramp who must have got into the grounds, and
+that he had tried to rob her, and that in the struggle, which took
+place near the edge of the lake, he had thrown her down at the
+water's edge and then made his escape."
+
+"And that explanation you _do_ accept?" said Dorcas, looking at the
+Colonel keenly.
+
+"How can I? Why should my daughter try to screen a tramp? Why did
+she tell the doctor an untruth? Surely the first impulse of a
+terrified woman rescued from a terrible death would have been to
+have described her assailant in order that he might have been
+searched for and brought to justice."
+
+"And the police, have they made any inquiries? Have they learned if
+any suspicious persons were seen about that evening?"
+
+"I have not been to the police. I talked the matter over with the
+doctor. He says that the police inquiries would make the whole thing
+public property, and it would be known everywhere that my daughter's
+story, which has now gone all over the neighbourhood, was untrue.
+But the whole affair is so mysterious, and to me so alarming, that I
+could not leave it where it is. It was the doctor who advised me to
+come to you and let the inquiry be a private one."
+
+"You need employ no one if your daughter can be persuaded to tell
+the truth. Have you tried?"
+
+"Yes. But she insists that it was a tramp, and declares that until
+the bruises betrayed her she kept to the fainting-fit story in order
+to make the affair as little alarming to me as possible."
+
+Dorcas Dene rose. "What time does the last train leave for
+Godalming?"
+
+"In an hour," said the Colonel, looking at his watch. "At the
+station my carriage will be waiting to take us to Orley Court. I
+want you to stay beneath my roof until you have discovered the key
+to the mystery."
+
+"No," said Dorcas, after a minute's thought. "I could do no good
+to-night, and my arrival with you would cause talk among the
+servants. Go back by yourself. Call on the doctor. Tell him to say
+his patient requires constant care during the next few days, and
+that he has sent for a trained nurse from London. The trained nurse
+will arrive about noon to-morrow."
+
+"And you?" exclaimed the Colonel, "won't you come?"
+
+Dorcas smiled. "Oh, yes; I shall be the trained nurse."
+
+The Colonel rose. "If you can discover the truth and let me know
+what it is my daughter is concealing from me I shall be eternally
+grateful," he said. "I shall expect you to-morrow at noon."
+
+"To-morrow at noon you will expect the trained nurse for whom the
+doctor has telegraphed. Good evening."
+
+I went to the door with Colonel Hargreaves, and saw him down the
+garden to the front gate.
+
+When I went back to the house Dorcas Dene was waiting for me in the
+hall. "Are you busy for the next few days?" she said.
+
+"No--I have practically nothing to do."
+
+"Then come to Godalming with me to-morrow. You are an artist, and I
+must get you permission to sketch that lake while I am nursing my
+patient indoors."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+It was past noon when the fly, hired from the station, stopped at
+the lodge gates of Orley Park, and the lodge-keeper's wife opened
+them to let us in.
+
+"You are the nurse for Miss Maud, I suppose, miss?" she said,
+glancing at Dorcas's neat hospital nurse's costume.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The Colonel and the doctor are both at the house expecting you,
+miss--I hope it isn't serious with the poor young lady."
+
+"I hope not," said Dorcas, with a pleasant smile.
+
+A minute or two later the fly pulled up at the door of a picturesque
+old Elizabethan mansion. The Colonel, who had seen the fly from the
+window, was on the steps waiting for us, and at once conducted us
+into the library. Dorcas explained my presence in a few words. I was
+her assistant, and through me she would be able to make all the
+necessary inquiries in the neighbourhood.
+
+"To your people Mr. Saxon will be an artist to whom you have given
+permission to sketch the house and the grounds--I think that will
+be best."
+
+The Colonel promised that I should have free access at all hours to
+the grounds, and it was arranged that I should stay at a pretty
+little inn which was about half a mile from the park. Having received
+full instructions on the way down from Dorcas, I knew exactly what
+to do, and bade her good-bye until the evening, when I was to call
+at the house to see her.
+
+The doctor came into the room to conduct the new nurse to the
+patient's bedside, and I left to fulfil my instructions.
+
+At "The Chequers," which was the name of the inn, it was no sooner
+known that I was an artist, and had permission to sketch in the
+grounds of Orley Park, than the landlady commenced to entertain me
+with accounts of the accident which had nearly cost Miss Hargreaves
+her life.
+
+The fainting-fit story, which was the only one that had got about,
+had been accepted in perfect faith.
+
+"It's a lonely place, that lake, and there's nobody about the
+grounds, you see, at night, sir--it was a wonder the poor young
+lady was found so soon."
+
+"Who found her?" I asked.
+
+"One of the gardeners who lives in a cottage in the park. He'd been
+to Godalming for the evening, and was going home past the lake."
+
+"What time was it?"
+
+"Nearly ten o'clock. It was lucky he saw her, for it had been dark
+nearly an hour then, and there was no moon."
+
+"What did he think when he found her?"
+
+"Well, sir, to tell you the truth, he thought at first it was
+suicide, and that the young lady hadn't gone far enough in and had
+lost her senses."
+
+"Of course, he couldn't have thought it was murder or anything of
+that sort," I said, "because nobody could get in at night--without
+coming through the lodge gates."
+
+"Oh! yes, they could at one place, but it'ud have to be somebody
+who knew the dogs or was with someone who did. There's a couple of
+big mastiffs have got a good run there, and no stranger 'ud try to
+clamber over--it's a side gate used by the family, sir--after they'd
+started barking."
+
+"Did they bark that night at all, do you know?"
+
+"Well, yes," said the landlady. "Now I come to think of it,
+Mr. Peters--that's the lodge-keeper--heard 'em, but they was quiet
+in a minute, so he took no more notice."
+
+That afternoon the first place I made up my mind to sketch was the
+Lodge. I found Mr. Peters at home, and my pass from the Colonel
+secured his good graces at once. His wife had told him of the
+strange gentleman who had arrived with the nurse, and I explained
+that there being only one fly at the station and our destination
+the same, the nurse had kindly allowed me to share the vehicle
+with her.
+
+I made elaborate pencil marks and notes in my new sketching book,
+telling Mr. Peters I was only doing something preliminary and
+rough, in order to conceal the amateurish nature of my efforts,
+and keep the worthy man gossiping about the "accident" to his
+young mistress.
+
+I referred to the landlady's statement that he had heard dogs bark
+that night.
+
+"Oh, yes, but they were quiet directly."
+
+"Probably some stranger passing down by the side gate, eh?"
+
+"Most likely, sir. I was a bit uneasy at first, but when they quieted
+down I thought it was all right."
+
+"Why were you uneasy?"
+
+"Well, there'd been a queer sort of a looking man hanging about that
+evening. My missus saw him peering in at the lodge gates about
+seven o'clock."
+
+"A tramp?"
+
+"No, a gentlemanly sort of man, but he gave my missus a turn, he had
+such wild, staring eyes. But he spoke all right. My missus asked him
+what he wanted, and he asked her what was the name of the big house
+he could see, and who lived there. She told him it was Orley Park,
+and Colonel Hargreaves lived there, and he thanked her and went
+away. A tourist, maybe, sir, or perhaps an artist gentleman, like
+yourself."
+
+"Staying in the neighbourhood and examining its beauties perhaps."
+
+"No; when I spoke about it the next day in the town I heard as he'd
+come by the train that afternoon; the porters had noticed him, he
+seemed so odd."
+
+I finished my rough sketch and then asked Mr. Peters to take me to
+the scene of the accident. It was a large lake and answered the
+description given by the Colonel.
+
+"That there's the place where Miss Maud was found," said Mr. Peters.
+"You see it's shallow there, and her head was just on the bank here
+out of the water."
+
+"Thank you. That's a delightful little island in the middle. I'll
+smoke a pipe here and sketch. Don't let me detain you."
+
+The lodge-keeper retired, and obeying the instructions received from
+Dorcas Dene, I examined the spot carefully.
+
+The marks of hobnailed boots were distinctly visible in the mud at
+the side, near the place where the struggle, admitted by
+Miss Hargreaves, had taken place. They might be the tramp's--they
+might be the gardener's; I was not skilled enough in the art of
+footprints to determine. But I had obtained a certain amount of
+information, and with that, at seven o'clock, I went to the house
+and asked for the Colonel.
+
+I had, of course, nothing to say to him, except to ask him to let
+Dorcas Dene know that I was there. In a few minutes Dorcas came to
+me with her bonnet and cloak on.
+
+"I'm going to get a walk while it is light," she said; "come
+with me."
+
+Directly we were outside I gave her my information, and she at once
+decided to visit the lake.
+
+She examined the scene of the accident carefully, and I pointed out
+the hobnailed boot marks.
+
+"Yes," she said, "those are the gardener's probably--I'm looking
+for someone else's."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"These," she said, suddenly stopping and pointing to a series of
+impressions in the soil at the edge. "Look--here are a woman's
+footprints, and here are larger ones beside them--now close to--now
+a little way apart--now crossing each other. Do you see anything
+particular in these footprints?"
+
+"No--except that there are no nails in them."
+
+"Exactly--the footprints are small, but larger than Miss Hargreaves'
+--the shape is an elegant one, you see the toes are pointed, and
+the sole is a narrow one. No tramp would have boots like those.
+Where did you say Mrs. Peters saw that strange-looking gentleman?"
+
+"Peering through the lodge gates."
+
+"Let us go there at once."
+
+Mrs. Peters came out and opened the gates for us.
+
+"What a lovely evening," said Dorcas. "Is the town very far?"
+
+"Two miles, miss."
+
+"Oh, that's too far for me to-night."
+
+She took out her purse and selected some silver.
+
+"Will you please send down the first thing in the morning and buy me
+a bottle of Wood Violet scent at the chemist's. I always use it, and
+I've come away without any."
+
+She was just going to hand some silver to Mrs. Peters, when she
+dropped her purse in the roadway, and the money rolled in every
+direction.
+
+We picked most of it up, but Dorcas declared there was another
+half-sovereign. For fully a quarter of an hour she peered about in
+every direction outside the lodge gates for that missing
+half-sovereign, and I assisted her. She searched for quite ten
+minutes in one particular spot, a piece of sodden, loose roadway
+close against the right-hand gate.
+
+Suddenly she exclaimed that she had found it, and, slipping her
+hand into her pocket, rose, and, handing Mrs. Peters a five-shilling
+piece for the scent, beckoned me to follow her, and strolled down
+the road.
+
+"How came you to drop your purse? Are you nervous to-night?" I said.
+
+"Not at all," replied Dorcas, with a smile. "I dropped my purse that
+the money might roll and give me an opportunity of closely examining
+the ground outside the gates."
+
+"Did you really find your half-sovereign?"
+
+"I never lost one; but I found what I wanted."
+
+"And that was?"
+
+"The footprints of the man who stood outside the gates that night.
+They are exactly the same shape as those by the side of the lake.
+The person Maud Hargreaves struggled with that night, the person who
+flung her into the lake and whose guilt she endeavoured to conceal
+by declaring she had met with an accident, was the man who wanted
+to know the name of the place, and asked who lived there--_the man
+with the wild eyes._"
+
+
+
+_IV. THE SECRET OF THE LAKE_
+
+"You are absolutely certain that the footprints of the man with the
+wild eyes, who frightened Mrs. Peters at the gate, and the
+footprints which are mixed up with those of Miss Hargreaves by the
+side of the lake, are the same?" I said to Dorcas Dene.
+
+"Absolutely certain."
+
+"Then perhaps, if you describe him, the Colonel may be able to
+recognise him."
+
+"No," said Dorcas Dene, "I have already asked him if he knew anyone
+who could possibly bear his daughter a grudge, and he declares that
+there is no one to his knowledge. Miss Hargreaves has scarcely
+any acquaintances."
+
+"And has had no love affair?" I asked.
+
+"None, her father says, but of course he can only answer for the
+last three years. Previously to that he was in India, and Maud--who
+was sent home at the age of fourteen, when her mother died--had
+lived with an aunt at Norwood."
+
+"Who do you think this man was who managed to get into the grounds
+and meet or surprise Miss Hargreaves by the lake--a stranger to her?"
+
+"No; had he been a stranger, she would not have shielded him by
+inventing the fainting fit story."
+
+We had walked some distance from the house, when an empty station
+fly passed us. We got in, Dorcas telling the man to drive us to the
+station.
+
+When we got there, she told me to go and interview the porters and
+try and find out if a man of the description of our suspect had
+left on the night of the "accident."
+
+I found the man who had told Mr. Peters that he had seen such a
+person arrive, and had noticed the peculiar expression of his eyes.
+This man assured me that no such person had left from that station.
+He had told his mates about him, and some of them would be sure to
+have seen him. The stranger brought no luggage, and gave up a single
+ticket from Waterloo.
+
+Dorcas was waiting for me outside, and I gave her my information.
+
+"No luggage," she said; "then he wasn't going to an hotel or to stay
+at a private house."
+
+"But he might be living somewhere about."
+
+"No; the porters would have recognised him if he had been in the
+habit of coming here."
+
+"But he must have gone away after flinging Miss Hargreaves into the
+water. He might have got out of the grounds again and walked to
+another station, and caught a train back to London."
+
+"Yes, he might," said Dorcas, "but I don't think he did. Come, we'll
+take the fly back to Orley Park."
+
+Just before we reached the park Dorcas stopped the driver, and we
+got out and dismissed the man.
+
+"Whereabouts are those dogs--near the private wooden door in the
+wall used by the family, aren't they?" she said to me.
+
+"Yes, Peters pointed the spot out to me this afternoon."
+
+"Very well, I'm going in. Meet me by the lake to-morrow morning
+about nine. But watch me now as far as the gates. I'll wait outside
+five minutes before ringing. When you see I'm there, go to that
+portion of the wall near the private door. Clamber up and peer over.
+When the dogs begin to bark, and come at you, notice if you could
+possibly drop over and escape them without someone they knew called
+them off. Then jump down again and go back to the inn."
+
+I obeyed Dorcas's instructions; and when I had succeeded in climbing
+to the top of the wall, the dogs flew out of their kennel, and
+commenced to bark furiously. Had I dropped I must have fallen
+straight into their grip. Suddenly I heard a shout, and I recognised
+the voice--it was the lodge-keeper. I dropped back into the road and
+crept along in the shadow of the wall. In the distance I could hear
+Peters talking to someone, and I knew what had happened. In the act
+of letting Dorcas in, he had heard the dogs, and had hurried off to
+see what was the matter. Dorcas had followed him.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+At nine o'clock next morning I found Dorcas waiting for me.
+
+"You did your work admirably last night," she said. "Peters was in a
+terrible state of alarm. He was very glad for me to come with him. He
+quieted the dogs, and we searched about everywhere in the shrubbery
+to see if anyone was in hiding. That man wasn't let in at the door
+that night by Miss Hargreaves; he dropped over. I found the
+impression of two deep footprints close together, exactly as they
+would be made by a drop or jump down from a height."
+
+"Did he go back that way--_were there return footprints_?"
+
+I thought I had made a clever suggestion, but Dorcas smiled, and
+shook her head. "I didn't look. How could he return past the dogs
+when Miss Hargreaves was lying in the lake? They'd have torn him
+to pieces."
+
+"And you still think this man with the wild eyes is guilty? Who can
+he have been?"
+
+"His name was Victor."
+
+"You have discovered that!" I exclaimed. "Has Miss Hargreaves been
+talking to you?"
+
+"Last night I tried a little experiment. When she was asleep, and
+evidently dreaming, I went quietly in the dark and stood just behind
+the bed, and in the gruffest voice I could assume, I said, bending
+down to her ear, 'Maud!'
+
+"She started up, and cried out, 'Victor!'
+
+"In a moment I was by her side, and found her trembling violently.
+'What's the matter, dear?' I said, 'have you been dreaming?'
+
+"'Yes--yes,' she said. 'I--I was dreaming.'
+
+"I soothed her, and talked to her a little while, and finally she
+lay down again and fell asleep."
+
+"That's something," I said "to have got the man's Christian name."
+
+"Yes, it's a little, but I think we shall have the surname to-day.
+You must go up to town and do a little commission for me presently.
+In the meantime, pull that boat in and row me across to the fowl
+island. I want to search it."
+
+"You don't imagine the man's hiding there," I said. "It's too small."
+
+"Pull me over," said Dorcas, getting into the boat.
+
+I obeyed, and presently we were on the little island.
+
+Dorcas carefully surveyed the lake in every direction. Then she
+walked round and examined the foliage and the reeds that were at
+the edge and drooping into the water.
+
+Suddenly pushing a mass of close overhanging growth aside, she
+thrust her hand deep down under it into the water and drew up a
+black, saturated, felt hat.
+
+"I thought if anything drifted that night, this is where it would
+get caught and entangled," said Dorcas.
+
+"If it is that man's hat, he must have gone away bareheaded."
+
+"Quite so," replied Dorcas, "but first let us ascertain if it is
+his. Row ashore at once."
+
+She wrung the water from the hat, squeezed it together and wrapped
+it up in her pocket-handkerchief and put it under her cloak.
+
+When we were ashore, I went to the lodge and got Mrs. Peters on to
+the subject of the man with the wild eyes. Then I asked what sort of
+a hat he had on, and Mrs. Peters said it was a felt hat with a dent
+in the middle, and I knew that our find was a good one.
+
+When I told Dorcas she gave a little smile of satisfaction.
+
+"We've got his Christian name and his hat," she said; "now we want
+the rest of him. You can catch the 11.20 easily."
+
+"Yes."
+
+She drew an envelope from her pocket and took a carte de visite
+from it.
+
+"That's the portrait of a handsome young fellow," she said. "By the
+style and size I should think it was taken four or five years ago.
+The photographers are the London Stereoscopic Company--the number of
+the negative is 111,492. If you go to Regent Street, they will
+search their books and give you the name and address of the
+original. Get it, and come back here."
+
+"Is that the man?" I said.
+
+"I think so."
+
+"How on earth did you get it?"
+
+"I amused myself while Miss Hargreaves was asleep by looking over the
+album in her boudoir. It was an old album, and filled with portraits
+of relatives and friends. I should say there were over fifty, some
+of them being probably her school-fellows. I thought I _might_ find
+something, you know. People have portraits given them, put them in
+an album, and almost forget they are there. I fancied Miss Hargreaves
+might have forgotten."
+
+"But how did you select this from fifty? There were other male
+portraits, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but I took out every portrait and examined the back and
+the margin."
+
+I took the photo from Dorcas and looked at it. I noticed that a
+portion of the back had been rubbed away and was rough.
+
+"That's been done with an ink eraser," said Dorcas. "That made me
+concentrate on this particular photo. There has been a name written
+there or some word the recipient didn't want other eyes to see."
+
+"That is only surmise."
+
+"Quite so--but there's a certainty in the photo itself. Look closely
+at that little diamond scarf-pin in the necktie. What shape is it?"
+
+"It looks like a small V."
+
+"Exactly. It was fashionable a few years ago for gentlemen to wear
+a small initial pin. V. stands for Victor--take that and the erasure
+together, and I think it's worth a return fare to town to find out
+what name and address are opposite the negative number in the books
+of the London Stereoscopic Company."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Before two o'clock I was interviewing the manager of the Stereoscopic
+Company, and he readily referred to the books. The photograph had
+been taken six years previously, and the name and address of the
+sitter were "Mr. Victor Dubois, Anerley Road, Norwood."
+
+Following Dorcas Dene's instructions, I proceeded at once to the
+address given, and made enquiries for a Mr. Victor Dubois. No one
+of that name resided there. The present tenants had been in
+possession for three years.
+
+As I was walking back along the road I met an old postman. I thought
+I would ask him if he knew the name anywhere in the neighbourhood.
+He thought a minute, then said, "Yes--now I come to think of it
+there was a Dubois here at No. --, but that was five years ago or
+more. He was an oldish, white-haired gentleman."
+
+"An old gentleman--Victor Dubois!"
+
+"Ah, no--the old gentleman's name was Mounseer Dubois, but there
+was a Victor. I suppose that must have been his son as lived with
+him. I know the name. There used to be letters addressed there for
+Mr. Victor most every day--sometimes twice a day--always in the same
+hand-writing, a lady's--that's what made me notice it."
+
+"And you don't know where M. Dubois and his son went to?"
+
+"No, I did hear as the old gentleman went off his head, and was put
+in a lunatic asylum; but they went out o' my round."
+
+"You don't know what he was, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, it said on the brass plate, 'Professor of Languages.'"
+
+I went back to town and took the first train to Godalming, and
+hastened to Orley Court to report the results of my enquiries
+to Dorcas.
+
+She was evidently pleased, for she complimented me. Then she rang
+the bell--we were in the dining-room--and the servant entered.
+
+"Will you let the Colonel know that I should like to see him?"
+said Dorcas, and the servant went to deliver the message.
+
+"Are you going to tell him everything?" I said.
+
+"I am going to tell him nothing yet," replied Dorcas. "I want him
+to tell me something."
+
+The Colonel entered. His face was worn, and he was evidently
+worrying himself a great deal.
+
+"Have you anything to tell me?" he said eagerly. "Have you found
+out what my poor girl is hiding from me?"
+
+"I'm afraid I cannot tell you yet. But I want to ask you a
+few questions."
+
+"I have given you all the information I can already," replied the
+Colonel a little bitterly.
+
+"All you recollect, but now try and think. Your daughter, before
+you came back from India, was with her aunt at Norwood. Where was
+she educated from the time she left India?"
+
+"She went to school at Brighton at first, but from the time she was
+sixteen she had private instruction at home."
+
+"She had professors, I suppose, for music, French, etc.?"
+
+"Yes, I believe so. I paid bills for that sort of thing. My sister
+sent them out to me to India."
+
+"Can you remember the name of Dubois?"
+
+The Colonel thought a little while.
+
+"Dubois? Dubois? Dubois?" he said. "I have an idea there was such a
+name among the accounts my sister sent to me, but whether it was a
+dressmaker or a French master I really can't say."
+
+"Then I think we will take it that your daughter had lessons at
+Norwood from a French professor named Dubois. Now, in any letters
+that your late sister wrote you to India, did she ever mention
+anything that had caused her uneasiness on Maud's account?"
+
+"Only once," replied the Colonel, "and everything was satisfactorily
+explained afterwards. She left home one day at nine o'clock in the
+morning, and did not return until four in the afternoon. Her aunt
+was exceedingly angry, and Maud explained that she had met some
+friends at the Crystal Palace--she attended the drawing class
+there--had gone to see one of her fellow students off at the
+station, and sitting in the carriage, the train had started before
+she could get out and she had had to go on to London. I expect my
+sister told me that to show me how thoroughly I might rely upon her
+as my daughter's guardian."
+
+"Went on to London?" said Dorcas to me under her voice, "and she
+could have got out in three minutes at the next station to Norwood!"
+Then turning to the Colonel, she said, "Now, Colonel, when your wife
+died, what did you do with her wedding ring?"
+
+"Good heavens, madam!" exclaimed the Colonel, rising and pacing the
+room, "what can my poor wife's wedding ring have to do with my
+daughter's being flung into the lake yonder?"
+
+"I am sorry if my question appears absurd," replied Dorcas quietly,
+"but will you kindly answer it?"
+
+"My wife's wedding ring is on my dead wife's finger in her coffin in
+the graveyard at Simla," exclaimed the Colonel, "and now perhaps
+you'll tell me what all this means!"
+
+"To-morrow," said Dorcas. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take a
+walk with Mr. Saxon. Miss Hargreaves' maid is with her, and she will
+be all right until I return."
+
+"Very well, very well!" exclaimed the Colonel, "but I beg--I pray of
+you to tell me what you know as soon as you can. I am setting spies
+upon my own child, and to me it is monstrous--and yet--and yet--
+what can I do? She won't tell me, and for her sake I must know--I
+must know."
+
+"You shall, Colonel Hargreaves," said Dorcas, going up to him and
+holding out her hand. "Believe me, you have my sincerest sympathy."
+
+The old Colonel grasped the proffered hand of Dorcas Dene.
+
+"Thank you," he said, his lips quivering.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Directly we were in the grounds Dorcas Dene turned eagerly to me.
+
+"I'm treating you very badly," she said, "but our task is nearly
+over. You must go back to town to-night. The first thing to-morrow
+morning go to Somerset House. You will find an old fellow named Daddy
+Green, a searcher in the inquiry room. Tell him you come from me, and
+give him this paper. When he has searched, telegraph the result to
+me, and come back by the next train."
+
+I looked at the paper, and found written on it in Dorcas's hand:
+
+"_Search wanted._
+Marriage--Victor Dubois and Maud Eleanor Hargreaves--probably
+between the years 1890 and 1893--London."
+
+I looked up from the paper at Dorcas Dene.
+
+"Whatever makes you think she is a married woman?" I said.
+
+"This," exclaimed Dorcas, drawing an unworn wedding-ring from her
+purse. "I found it among a lot of trinkets at the bottom of a box
+her maid told me was her jewel-case. I took the liberty of trying
+all her keys till I opened it. A jewel-box tells many secrets to
+those who know how to read them."
+
+"And you concluded from that----?
+
+"That she wouldn't keep a wedding-ring without it had belonged to
+someone dear to her or had been placed on her own finger. It is
+quite unworn, you see, so it was taken off immediately after the
+ceremony. It was only to make doubly sure that I asked the Colonel
+where his wife's was."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+I duly repaired to Somerset House, and soon after midday Daddy
+Green, the searcher, brought a paper and handed it to me. It was
+a copy of the certificate of the marriage of Victor Dubois,
+bachelor, aged twenty-six, and Maud Eleanor Hargreaves, aged
+twenty-one, in London, in the year 1891. I telegraphed the news,
+wording the message simply "Yes," and the date, and I followed my
+wire by the first train.
+
+When I arrived at Orley Park I rang several times before anyone
+came. Presently Mrs. Peters, looking very white and excited, came
+from the grounds and apologised for keeping me waiting.
+
+"Oh, sir--such a dreadful thing!" she said--"a body in the lake!"
+
+"A body!"
+
+"Yes, sir--a man. The nurse as came with you here that day, she was
+rowing herself on the lake, and she must have stirred it pushing
+with her oar, for it come up all tangled with weeds. It's a man,
+sir, and I do believe it's the man I saw at the gate that night."
+
+"_The man with the wild eyes!_" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes sir! Oh, it is dreadful--Miss Maud first, and then this.
+Oh, what can it mean!"
+
+I found Dorcas standing at the edge of the lake, and Peters and two
+of the gardeners lifting the drowned body of a man into the boat
+which was alongside.
+
+Dorcas was giving instructions. "Lay it in the boat, and cover it
+with a tarpaulin," she said. "Mind, nothing is to be touched till
+the police come. I will go and find the Colonel."
+
+As she turned away I met her.
+
+"What a terrible thing! Is it Dubois?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dorcas. "I suspected he was there yesterday, but I
+wanted to find him myself instead of having the lake dragged."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, I didn't want anyone else to search the pockets. There might
+have been papers or letters, you know, which would have been read at
+the inquest, and might have compromised Miss Hargreaves. But there
+was nothing--"
+
+"What--you searched!"
+
+"Yes, after I'd brought the poor fellow to the surface with the
+oars."
+
+"But how do you think he got in?"
+
+"Suicide--insanity. The father was taken to a lunatic asylum--you
+learned that at Norwood yesterday. Son doubtless inherited tendency.
+Looks like a case of homicidal mania--he attacked Miss Hargreaves,
+whom he had probably tracked after years of separation, and after he
+had as he thought killed her, he drowned himself. At any rate,
+Miss Hargreaves is a free woman. She was evidently terrified of her
+husband when he was alive, and so--"
+
+I guessed what Dorcas was thinking as we went together to the house.
+At the door she held out her hand. "You had better go to the inn and
+return to town to-night," she said. "You can do no more good, and
+had better keep out of it. I shall be home to-morrow. Come to Oak
+Tree Road in the evening."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+The next evening Dorcas told me all that had happened after I left.
+Paul had already heard it, and when I arrived was profuse in his
+thanks for the assistance I had rendered his wife. Mrs. Lester,
+however, felt compelled to remark that she never thought a daughter
+of hers would go gadding about the country fishing up corpses for
+a living.
+
+Dorcas had gone to the Colonel and told him everything. The Colonel
+was in a terrible state, but Dorcas told him that the only way in
+which to ascertain the truth was for them to go to the unhappy girl
+together, and attempt, with the facts in their possession, to
+persuade her to divulge the rest.
+
+When the Colonel told his daughter that the man she had married had
+flung her into the lake that night, she was dumbfounded, and became
+hysterical, but when she learned that Dubois had been found in the
+lake she became alarmed and instantly told all she knew.
+
+She had been in the habit of meeting Victor Dubois constantly when
+she was at Norwood, at first with his father--her French master--and
+afterwards alone. He was handsome, young, romantic, and they fell
+madly in love. He was going away for some time to an appointment
+abroad, and he urged her to marry him secretly. She foolishly
+consented, and they parted at the church, she returning to her home
+and he going abroad the same evening.
+
+She received letters from him clandestinely from time to time. Then
+he wrote that his father had become insane and had to be removed to
+a lunatic asylum, and he was returning. He had only time to see to
+his father's removal and return to his appointment. She did not hear
+from him for a long time, and then through a friend at Norwood who
+knew the Dubois and their relatives she made enquiries. Victor had
+returned to England, and met with an accident which had injured his
+head severely. He became insane and was taken to a lunatic asylum.
+
+The poor girl resolved to keep her marriage a secret for ever then,
+especially as her father had returned from India, and she knew how
+bitterly it would distress him to learn that his daughter was the
+wife of a madman.
+
+On the night of the affair Maud was in the grounds by herself. She
+was strolling by the lake after dinner, when she heard a sound, and
+the dogs began to bark. Looking up, she saw Victor Dubois scaling
+the wall. Fearful that the dogs would bring Peters or someone on the
+scene, she ran to them and silenced them, and her husband leapt down
+and stood by her.
+
+"Come away!" she said, fearing the dogs might attack him and begin
+to bark again, and she led him round by the lake which was out of
+sight of the house and the lodge.
+
+She forgot for the moment in her excitement that he had been mad.
+At first he was gentle and kind. He told her he had been ill and in
+an asylum, but had recently been discharged cured. Directly he
+regained his liberty he set out in search of his wife, and
+ascertained from an old Norwood acquaintance that Miss Hargreaves
+was now living with her father at Orley Park, near Godalming.
+
+Maud begged him to go away quietly, and she would write to him. He
+tried to take her in his arms and kiss her, but instinctively she
+shrank from him. Instantly he became furious. Seized with a sudden
+mania, he grasped her by the throat. She struggled and freed herself.
+
+They were at the edge of the lake. Suddenly the maniac got her by
+the throat again, and hurled her down into the water. She fell in
+up to her waist, but managed to drag herself towards the edge, but
+before she emerged she fell senseless--fortunately with her head on
+the shore just out of the water.
+
+The murderer, probably thinking that she was dead, must have waded
+out into the deep water and drowned himself.
+
+Before she left Orley Park Dorcas advised the Colonel to let the
+inquest be held without any light being thrown on the affair by him.
+Only he was to take care that the police received information that a
+man answering the description of the suicide had recently been
+discharged from a lunatic asylum.
+
+We heard later that at the inquest an official from the asylum
+attended, and the local jury found that Victor Dubois, a lunatic,
+got into the grounds in some way, and drowned himself in the lake
+while temporarily insane. It was suggested by the coroner that
+probably Miss Hargreaves, who was too unwell to attend, had not
+seen the man, but might have been alarmed by the sound of his
+footsteps, and that this would account for her fainting away near
+the water's edge. At any rate, the inquest ended in a satisfactory
+verdict, and the Colonel shortly afterwards took his daughter
+abroad with him on a Continental tour for the benefit of her health.
+
+But of this of course we knew nothing on the evening after the
+eventful discovery, when I met Dorcas once more beneath her
+own roof-tree.
+
+Paul was delighted to have his wife back again, and she devoted
+herself to him, and that evening had eyes and ears for no one
+else--not even for her faithful "assistant."
+
+
+
+_V. THE DIAMOND LIZARD_
+
+I had received a little note from Dorcas Dene, telling me that Paul
+and her mother had gone to the seaside for a fortnight, and that
+she was busy on a case which was keeping her from home, so that it
+would not be of any use my calling at Oak Tree Road at present, as
+I should find no one there but the servants and whitewashers.
+
+It had been a very hot July, but I was unable to leave town myself,
+having work on hand which compelled me to be on the spot. But I got
+away from the close, dusty streets during the daytime as frequently
+as I could, and one hot, broiling afternoon I found myself in a
+brown holland suit on the terrace of the "Star and Garter" at
+Richmond, vainly endeavouring to ward off the fierce rays of the
+afternoon sun with one of those white umbrellas which are common
+enough on the Continent, but rare enough to attract attention in a
+land where fashion is one thing and comfort another.
+
+My favourite "Star and Garter" waiter, Karl, an amiable and voluble
+little German, who, during a twenty years' residence in England, had
+acquired the English waiter's love of betting on horse-races, had
+personally attended to my wants, and brought me a cup of freshly-made
+black coffee and a petit verre of specially fine Courvoisier,
+strongly recommended by Mr. James, the genial and obliging manager.
+Comforted by the coffee and overpowered by the heat, I was just
+dropping off into a siesta, when I was attracted by a familiar voice
+addressing me by name.
+
+I raised my umbrella, and at first imagined that I must have made a
+mistake. The voice was undoubtedly that of Dorcas Dene, but the lady
+who stood smiling in front of me was to all outward appearance an
+American tourist. There was the little courier bag attached to the
+waist-belt, with which we always associate the pretty American
+accent during the great American touring season. The lady in front
+of me was beautifully dressed, and appeared through the veil she was
+wearing to be young and well-favoured, but her hair was silvery grey
+and her complexion that of a brunette. Now Dorcas Dene was a blonde
+with soft brown wavy hair, and so I hesitated for a moment,
+imagining that I must have fallen into a half doze and have dreamed
+that I heard Dorcas calling me.
+
+The lady, who evidently noticed my doubt and hesitation, smiled and
+came close to the garden seat on which I had made myself as
+comfortable as the temperature would allow me.
+
+"Good afternoon," she said. "I saw you lunching in the restaurant,
+but I couldn't speak to you then. I'm here on business."
+
+It _was_ Dorcas Dene.
+
+"I have half an hour to spare," she said. "My people are at the
+little table yonder. They've just ordered their coffee, so they
+won't be going yet."
+
+She sat down at the other end of the garden seat, and, following a
+little inclination of her parasol, I saw that the "people" she
+alluded to were a young fellow of about three-and-twenty, a handsome
+woman of about five-and-thirty, rather loudly dressed, and a
+remarkably pretty girl in a charming tailor-made costume of some
+soft white material, and a straw hat with a narrow red ribbon round
+it. The young lady wore a red sailor's-knot tie over a white shirt.
+The red of the hat-band and the tie showed out against the whiteness
+of the costume, and were conspicuous objects in the bright sunlight.
+
+"How beautiful the river is from here," said Dorcas, after I had
+inquired how Paul was, and had learnt that he was at Eastbourne in
+apartments with Mrs. Lester, and that the change had benefited his
+health considerably.
+
+As she spoke Dorcas drew a small pair of glasses from her pocket,
+and appeared very much interested in a little boat with a big white
+sail, making its way lazily down the river, which glistened like a
+sheet of silver in the sunlight.
+
+"Yes," I said, "it's a scene that always delights our American
+visitors, but I suppose you're not here to admire the beauties
+of the Thames?"
+
+"No," said Dorcas, laughing. "If I had leisure for that I should
+be at Eastbourne with my poor old Paul. I've a case in hand."
+
+"And the _case_ is yonder--the young man, the lady, and the pretty
+girl with the red tie?"
+
+Dorcas nodded assent. "Yes--she is pretty, isn't she? Take my
+glasses and include her in the scenery, and then, if you are not too
+fascinated to spare a glance for anybody else, look at the
+young gentleman."
+
+I took the hint and the glasses. The young lady was more than
+pretty; she was as perfect a specimen of handsome English girlhood
+as I had ever seen. I looked from her to the elder lady, and was
+struck by the contrast. She was much too bold-looking and showy to
+be the companion of so modest-looking and bewitching a damsel.
+
+I shifted my glasses from the ladies to the young gentleman.
+
+"A fine, handsome young fellow, is he not?" said Dorcas.
+
+"Yes. Who is he?"
+
+"His name is Claude Charrington. He is the son of Mr. Charrington,
+the well-known barrister, and I am at the present moment a
+parlour-maid in his stepmother's service."
+
+I looked at the silver-haired, smart American lady with astonishment.
+
+"A parlour-maid! Like that!" I exclaimed.
+
+"No; I've been home and made up for Richmond. I have a day out. I
+should like you to see me as a parlour-maid at the Charringtons--the
+other servants think I can't have been in very good places; but they
+are very kind to me, especially Johnson, the footman, and
+Mrs. Charrington is quite satisfied."
+
+"Does she know you are not really a parlour-maid?"
+
+"Yes. It was she who engaged me to investigate a little mystery
+which is troubling her very much. I had to be in the house to make
+my inquiries, and she consented that I should come as a parlour-maid.
+It is a very curious case, and I am very interested in it."
+
+"Then so am I," I said, "and you must tell me all about it."
+
+"About ten days ago," said Dorcas, "just as I had arranged to have a
+fortnight at the seaside with Paul, a lady called on me in a state
+of great agitation.
+
+"She told me that her name was Mrs. Charrington, that she was the
+second wife of Mr. Charrington, the barrister, and that she was in
+great distress of mind owing to the loss of a diamond and ruby
+bracelet, a diamond and ruby pendant, and a small diamond lizard,
+which had mysteriously disappeared from her jewel case.
+
+"I asked her at once why she had not informed the police instead of
+coming to me; and she explained that her suspicions pointed to a
+member of her own family as the thief, and she was terrified to go
+to the police for fear their investigations would be a terrible one.
+
+"I asked her if she had informed her husband of her loss, and if the
+servants knew of it, and she told me that  she had only just
+discovered it, and had not said a word to anyone but her own family
+solicitor, who had advised her to come to me at once, as the matter
+was a delicate one. Her husband was away in the country, and she
+dreaded telling him until she was quite sure the person she suspected
+was innocent, and she had not yet said anything to the servants, as,
+of course, if she did they would have a right to insist on the matter
+being investigated in order that their characters might be cleared.
+It was a most unpleasant situation, apart from the loss of the
+valuable jewels, which had been given to her a few days previously
+as a birthday present. She was in the position of being compelled to
+conceal her loss for fear of bringing the guilt home to a member of
+her family."
+
+"And whom does she suspect?" I asked.
+
+"The young gentleman who is paying such marked attention yonder to
+the pretty girl in the red tie--her stepson, Mr. Claude Charrington,"
+answered Dorcas, picking up her glasses and surveying the "scenery."
+
+"Why does she suspect him?" I asked, following her gaze.
+
+"Mrs. Charrington tells me that her stepson has lately caused his
+father considerable anxiety owing to his extravagance and
+recklessness. He has just left Oxford, and is going to the Bar, but
+he has been very erratic, and lately has evidently been pressed for
+money. Mrs. Charrington is very fond of him, and he has always
+appeared to return her affection, and has frequently come to her
+with his troubles. Mr. Charrington is an irritable man, and inclined
+to be severe with his son, and the stepmother has frequently acted
+as peacemaker between them. She has always endeavoured to make
+Claude look upon her as his own mother.
+
+"A few days before the robbery was discovered Claude laughingly told
+her that he was 'in a devil of a mess' again, and that in order to
+get a little ready money to carry on with he had had to pawn his
+watch and chain for ten pounds. His father had recently given him
+a sum of money to satisfy some pressing creditors, but had insisted
+on deducting a certain amount monthly from his allowance until it
+was paid. Claude showed Mrs. Charrington the ticket for the watch
+and chain, and jokingly said that if things didn't get better with
+him he would have to give up all idea of the Bar and go to South
+Africa and look for a diamond mine. He had told her that he hadn't
+dared tell the Governor how much he owed, and that the assistance
+had only staved off the more pressing of his creditors.
+
+"Mrs. Charrington urged him to make a clean breast of everything
+on his father's return. He shook his head, and presently laughed the
+matter off, saying perhaps something would turn up. He wasn't going
+to the Governor again if he could possibly help it.
+
+"That was the situation of affairs two days before the robbery was
+discovered. But two days after he had let his stepmother see the
+ticket for his watch and chain, Claude Charrington was in funds
+again. Mrs. Charrington discovered it quite accidentally. Claude
+took out a pocket-book at the breakfast table to look for a letter,
+and in taking out an envelope he pulled out a packet of banknotes.
+He said, 'Oh, I've had a stroke of luck,' but he coloured up and
+looked confused. That evening Mrs. Charrington--who, by the bye, I
+should tell you was in mourning for her brother, who had just died
+in India--went to her jewel case, and to her horror discovered that
+a diamond and ruby bracelet, a diamond and ruby pendant, and a
+diamond lizard had disappeared. The cases were there, but empty.
+
+"Instantly the idea occurred to her that Claude, knowing she was in
+mourning, and not likely to wear the jewels for some time, had
+abstracted them and pawned them--perhaps intending to put them back
+again as soon as he could get the money.
+
+"She was strengthened in her suspicion by his acquisition of
+banknotes at a time when, according to his own account, he had
+pawned his watch to tide over until his allowance became due; his
+confusion when she noticed the banknotes; and finally by her
+suddenly remembering that two evenings previously after she had
+dressed for dinner and was in the drawing-room, she had gone
+upstairs again to fetch her keys, which she remembered having left
+on the dressing-table. Outside her room she met Claude with his dog,
+a fox-terrier, at his heels.
+
+"'I've been hunting all over the place for Jack, Mater,' he said,
+'and I heard him in your room. The little beggar was scratching away
+at the wainscoting like mad. There must be rats there. I had to go
+in to get him away--I was afraid he'd do some damage.'
+
+"Mrs. Charrington found her keys on the dressing-table, and thought
+no more of Claude and his explanation until she missed the jewellery.
+Then it occurred to her that Claude had been in her room and had had
+an opportunity of using her keys, which not only opened the drawer
+in which she kept her jewel case, but the case itself."
+
+Dorcas finished her story, and I sat for a moment gazing at the young
+fellow, who seemed supremely happy. Could it be possible that if he
+were guilty his crime could trouble him so little?
+
+"The circumstances are very suspicious," I said, presently, "but
+don't you think Mrs. Charrington ought at once to have taxed her
+stepson, and given him an opportunity of clearing himself?"
+
+"He would naturally have denied the charge under any circumstances.
+But presuming him to be innocent, the bare idea that his stepmother
+could have thought him guilty would have been most painful to him.
+That is the sort of mistake one can never atone for. No,
+Mrs. Charrington did the wisest thing she could have done. She
+decided, if possible, to be sure of his guilt or innocence before
+letting anyone--even her husband--know of her loss."
+
+"And how far do your investigations go in other directions?"
+
+"So far, I am still in the dark. I have had every opportunity of
+mixing with the servants and studying them, and I don't believe for
+a moment that they are concerned in the matter. The footman bets,
+but is worried because he has not paid back a sovereign he borrowed
+last week to put on a 'dead cert.,' which didn't come off. The
+lady's maid is an honourable, high-minded girl, engaged to be
+married to a most respectable man who has been in a position of
+trust for some years. I cannot find the slightest suspicious
+circumstances connected with any of the other servants."
+
+"Then you are inclined to take Mrs. Charrington's view?"
+
+"No, I am not. And yet----Well, I shall be able to answer more
+definitely when I have found out a little more about that young lady
+with the red tie. I have had no opportunity of making inquiries
+about her. I found out that Claude Charrington was coming to the
+'Star and Garter' this morning when Johnson came downstairs with a
+telegram to the manager, 'Reserve window table for two o'clock'; and
+when I got here the little party were already at luncheon."
+
+"But the young lady may have nothing to do with the matter. When a
+young man pawns someone else's jewellery to provide himself with
+ready money, surely the last person he would tell would be the young
+lady he is entertaining at the 'Star and Garter.'"
+
+"Quite so," said Dorcas, "but I have seen the young lady rather more
+closely than you have. I sat at the next table to them in the
+restaurant. Let us take a little stroll and pass them now."
+
+Dorcas rose, and with her parasol shading her face strolled down on
+the terrace, and I walked by her side.
+
+As we passed quite close to Claude Charrington and his friends I
+looked at the young lady. The end of her red necktie was fastened
+to the shirt _with a diamond lizard._
+
+"Good heavens!" I said to Dorcas when we were out of hearing, "is
+that part of the missing jewellery?"
+
+"If it is not, it is at least a curious coincidence. Claude
+Charrington has access to his stepmother's room and the keys of her
+jewel case. Jewellery is missing. One of the articles is a diamond
+lizard. He is here to-day with a young lady, and that young lady has
+on jewellery which exactly answers the description of one of the
+missing articles. Now you know why I am going to find out a little
+more concerning that young lady and her female companion."
+
+"Do you want an 'assistant'?" I said eagerly.
+
+Dorcas smiled. "Not this time, thank you," she said; "but if I do
+later I will send you a wire. Now I think I must say good-day, for
+my 'people' look like making a move, and I mustn't lose them."
+
+"Can't I see you this evening?"
+
+"No, this evening I expect I shall be back at Mrs. Charrington's--
+you forget I am only a parlour-maid with a day out."
+
+Dorcas nodded pleasantly, and I took the hint and left her.
+
+A few minutes later I saw the Charrington party going back into the
+hotel, and Dorcas Dene following them at a respectful distance.
+
+I sat down once again on my old seat and fell into a reverie, which
+was interrupted by Karl the waiter, who came ostensibly to know if
+there was anything he could get me, but really to have a few
+minutes' chat on his favourite subject--the Turf. Did I know
+anything good for to-morrow at Sandown?
+
+I told Karl that I did not, and then he told me that he had had a
+good tip himself--I ought to get on at once. I shifted the
+conversation from the Turf to general gossip, and then quite
+innocently I asked him if he knew who the people were who had
+lunched at the window table and had just left the terrace.
+
+Oh, yes, he knew the young gentleman. That was Mr. Claude
+Charrington.
+
+He was a frequent customer and had often given Karl a good tip.
+Only a few days ago he had given him a horse at long odds and it
+had come off.
+
+"And the young lady with the red tie?"
+
+Karl wasn't quite sure--he had seen her only once or twice before.
+He thought the young lady was an actress at one of the Comic Opera
+theatres. The elder lady used to be often there years ago, but she
+hadn't been for some time until to-day. He remembered her when she
+was one of the handsomest women of the day.
+
+I lit a cigarette and said carelessly that I supposed they came with
+Mr. Charrington.
+
+"No," said Karl; "they were here when he came, and he seemed rather
+surprised to see the elder lady. I suppose," said Karl, with a grin,
+"the young gentleman had only invited the younger lady to lunch, and
+he thought that two was company and three was none, as your English
+proverb says."
+
+A white napkin waved from the balcony of the restaurant summoned
+Karl back to his duties, and looking at my watch I found that it was
+four o'clock, and time for me to make a start for town, where I had
+an appointment at six.
+
+I thought of nothing but the mystery of the Charrington jewellery
+in the train, but when I got out at Waterloo I was still unable to
+find any theory which would satisfactorily reconcile the two opposing
+difficulties. If Claude Charrington had stolen his stepmother's
+jewellery to raise money on it he wouldn't have given it away; and
+if he had given it away it could have nothing to do with his sudden
+possession of a bundle of banknotes, which his stepmother considered
+one of the principal proofs of his guilt.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Two days later I received a telegram just before noon:
+
+"Marble Arch, four o'clock. --DORCAS."
+
+I was there punctually to the time, and a few minutes later Dorcas
+joined me, and we turned into the park.
+
+"Well," I said, "you've found out who the young lady is. You've
+traced the jewellery--and I suppose there can be no doubt that
+Claude Charrington is the culprit?"
+
+"I've found out that the young lady is a Miss Dolamore. She is a
+thoroughly good girl. Her mother, the widow of a naval officer, is
+in poor circumstances and lives in the country. Miss Dolamore,
+having a good voice, has gone on the stage. She is in lodgings in
+Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square. The house is kept and let out in
+apartments by an Italian, one Carlo Rinaldi, married to an English
+woman--the English woman is the woman who was with Miss Dolamore
+at the 'Star and Garter' that day."
+
+"Then the elder woman was her landlady?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And Claude Charrington is in love with Miss Dolamore!"
+
+"Exactly. They have been about together a great deal. He calls
+frequently to see her and take her out. It is understood in the
+house that they are engaged."
+
+"How have you ascertained all this?"
+
+"I visit the house. The second floor was to let and I took it
+yesterday morning for a friend of mine and paid the rent in advance.
+I am getting little odds and ends and taking them there for her.
+There is a delightfully communicative Irish housemaid at the
+Rinaldi's."
+
+"Then of course it's quite clear that Claude Charrington gave
+Miss Dolamore that diamond lizard. Have you found out if she has
+the bracelet and the pendant too? If she hasn't, the lizard may be
+merely a coincidence. There are plenty of diamond lizards about."
+
+"The bracelet and the pendant are at Attenborough's. They were
+pawned some days ago by a person giving the name of Claude
+Charrington and the Charringtons' correct address."
+
+"By Claude Charrington, of course?"
+
+"No; whoever the guilty party is it is not Claude Charrington."
+
+"_Not Claude Charrington!_" I exclaimed, my brain beginning to whirl
+"What do you mean? The jewels were in Mrs. Charrington's case--she
+misses them--one article is in the possession of Claude's sweetheart,
+a young lady who is on the stage, and the others are pawned in the
+name of Claude Charrington, and yet you say Claude Charrington had
+nothing to do with it. Whatever makes you come to such a strange
+conclusion as that?"
+
+"One fact--and one fact alone. On the very day that we were at
+Richmond Mr. Charrington, the barrister, returned to town. He
+arrived in the afternoon, and seemed worried and out of sorts. His
+wife had made up her mind to tell him everything, but he was so
+irritable that she hesitated.
+
+"Yesterday she had an extraordinary story to tell me. When her
+husband had gone to his chambers in the morning she began to worry
+about not having told him. She felt that she really ought to do so
+now he had come back. She went to her jewel case to go over everything
+once more in order to be quite sure nothing else was missing before
+she told him her trouble, and there, to her utter amazement, was all
+the missing property, the bracelet, the pendant, and the diamond
+lizard."
+
+"Then," I said with a gasp, "Claude Charrington must have redeemed
+them and put them back!"
+
+"Not at all. The diamond lizard is _still_ in Miss Dolamore's
+possession, and the diamond bracelet and pendant are _still at
+Attenborough's._"
+
+I stared at Dorcas Dene for a moment in dumb amazement. When at last
+I could find words to speak my thoughts I exclaimed: "What does this
+mean? What can it mean? We shall never know now because
+Mrs. Charrington has her jewels again and your task is ended."
+
+"No--my task is a double one now. Mrs. Charrington engaged me to
+find out who stole her jewels. When I can tell her that I shall be
+able to tell her also who endeavoured to conceal the robbery by
+putting a similar set back in their place. This is no common case
+of jewel stealing. There is a mystery and a romance behind it--
+a tangled skein which a Lecoq or a Sherlock Holmes would have been
+proud to unravel--_and I think I have a clue._"
+
+
+
+_VI. THE PRICK OF A PIN_
+
+When Dorcas told me that she had a clue to the mystery of the
+Charrington jewels, I pressed her to tell me what it was.
+
+"All in good time," she said; "meanwhile you can help me if you
+will. There is a club in ------- Street, Soho, of which most of the
+members are foreigners. It is called 'The Camorra.' Carlo Rinaldi,
+the landlord of the house in which Miss Dolamore is staying, spends
+his evenings there. It is a gambling club. Visitors are admitted,
+and the members are by no means averse to female society. I want
+you to take me there to-morrow night."
+
+"But, my dear Dorcas--I--I'm not a member."
+
+"No, but you can be a visitor."
+
+"But I don't _know_ a member."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," said Dorcas, "you know a dozen. Ask your favourite
+waiter at any foreign restaurant, and he will be pretty sure to be
+able to tell you of one of his fellow-employés who can take you."
+
+"Yes," I said, after I had thought for a moment. "If that is so, I
+think I can arrange it."
+
+"That's a bargain, then," she said. "I will meet you and your friend
+the member outside Ketner's, in Church Street, to-morrow night at
+ten o'clock. Till then, good-bye."
+
+"One question more," I said, retaining the hand that was placed in
+mine. "I assume that your object in going to this club is to watch
+Miss Dolamore's landlord; but if you have taken his second floor,
+won't he recognise you and be suspicious?"
+
+Dorcas Dene smiled. "I'll take care there is no danger of his
+recognising the lady of the second floor at the Camorra to-morrow
+night. And now, good afternoon. The Charringtons dine at eight, and
+I have to wait at table to-night."
+
+Then, with a little nod of adieu, she walked quickly away and left
+me to think out my plans for capturing a member of the Camorra.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+I had very little difficulty in finding a waiter who was a member.
+He turned up in a very old acquaintance, Guiseppe, of a well-known
+Strand café and restaurant. Guiseppe easily obtained an evening off,
+but he demurred when I told him that I wanted him to introduce a
+lady friend of mine as well as myself to the club. He was nervous.
+Was she a lady journalist? I pacified Guiseppe, and the preliminaries
+were satisfactorily arranged, and at ten o'clock, leaving Guiseppe
+round the corner, I strolled on to Ketner's, and looked for Dorcas
+Dene.
+
+There was no trace of her, and I was beginning to think she had been
+detained, when a stout, rather elderly-looking woman came towards me.
+She was dressed in a black silk dress, the worse for wear, a shabby
+black velvet mantle, and a black bonnet, plentifully bedecked with
+short black ostrich plumes, upon which wind and weather had told
+their tale. At her throat was a huge cameo brooch. As she came into
+the light she looked like one of the German landladies of the
+shilling table d'hôte establishments in the neighbourhood. The woman
+looked at me searchingly, and then asked me in guttural broken
+English if I was the gentleman who had an appointment there with
+a lady.
+
+For a moment I hesitated. It might be a trap.
+
+"Who told you to ask me?"
+
+"Dorcas Dene."
+
+"Indeed," I said, still suspicious, "and who is Dorcas Dene?"
+
+"_I am,_" replied the German frau. "Come, do you think Rinaldi will
+recognise his second floor?"
+
+"My dear Dorcas," I gasped, as soon as I had recovered from my
+astonishment, "why _did_ you leave the stage?"
+
+"Never mind about the stage," said Dorcas. "Where's the member of
+the Camorra?"
+
+"He's waiting at the corner."
+
+I had all my work to keep from bursting into a roar of laughter at
+Guiseppe's face when I introduced him to my lady friend,
+"Mrs. Goldschmidt." He evidently didn't think much of my choice of
+a female companion, but he bowed and smiled at the stout,
+old-fashioned German frau, and led the way to the club. After a few
+rough-and-ready formalities at the door, Guiseppe signed for two
+guests in a book which lay on the hall table, and we passed into a
+large room at the back of the premises, in which were a number of
+chairs and small tables, a raised platform with a piano, and a bar.
+A few men and women, mostly foreigners, were sitting about talking
+or reading the papers, and a sleepy-looking waiter was taking orders
+and serving drinks.
+
+"Where do they play cards?" I said.
+
+"Upstairs."
+
+"Can I play?"
+
+"Oh, yes, if I introduce you as my friend."
+
+"May ladies play?"
+
+Guiseppe shrugged his shoulders. "If they have money to lose--
+why not?"
+
+I went to Dorcas. "Is he here?" I whispered.
+
+"No; he's where the playing is, I expect."
+
+"That's where we are going," I said.
+
+Dorcas rose, and she and I and Guiseppe made our way to the upstairs
+room together.
+
+On the landing we were challenged by a big square-shouldered Italian.
+"Only members pass here," he said, gruffly.
+
+Guiseppe answered in Italian, and the man growled out, "All right,"
+and we entered a room which was as crowded as the other was empty.
+
+One glance at the table was sufficient to show me that the game was
+an illegal one.
+
+Dorcas stood by me among a little knot of onlookers. Presently she
+nudged my elbow, and I followed her glance. A tall, swarthy Italian,
+the wreck of what must once have been a remarkably handsome man, sat
+scowling fiercely as he lost stake after stake. I asked her with my
+eyebrows if she meant this was Rinaldi, and she nodded her head
+in assent.
+
+A waiter was in the room taking orders, and bringing the drinks up
+from the bar below.
+
+"Order two brandies and sodas," whispered Dorcas.
+
+Then Dorcas sat down at the end of the room away from the crowd,
+and I joined her. The waiter brought the brandies and sodas and put
+them down. I paid unchallenged.
+
+A dispute had arisen over at the big table, and the players were
+shouting one against the other. Dorcas took advantage of the din,
+and said, close to my ear, "Now you must do as I tell you--I'm going
+back to the table. Presently Rinaldi will leap up; when he does,
+seize him by the arms, and hold him--a few seconds will do."
+
+"But----"
+
+"It's all right. Do as I tell you."
+
+She rose, taking her glass, still full of brandy and soda, with her.
+I wondered how on earth she could tell Rinaldi was going to jump up.
+
+The stout old German frau pushed in among the crowd till she was
+almost leaning over Rinaldi's shoulder. Suddenly she lurched and
+tilted the entire contents of her glass into the breast pocket of
+his coat. He sprang up with a fierce oath, the rest of the company
+yelling with laughter. Instantly I seized him by the arms, as though
+to prevent him in his rage striking Dorcas. The German woman had
+her handkerchief out.
+
+She begged a thousand pardons, and began to mop up the liquid which
+was dripping down her victim. Then she thrust her hand into his
+inner pocket.
+
+"Oh, the pocket-book! Ah, it must be dried!"
+
+Quick as lightning she opened the book, and began to pull out the
+contents and wipe them with her handkerchief.
+
+Carlo Rinaldi, who had been bellowing like a bull, struggled from me
+with an effort, and made a grab at the book. Dorcas, pretending to
+fear he was going to strike her, flung the book to him, and, giving
+me a quick glance, ran out of the room and down the stairs, and I
+followed, the fierce oaths of Rinaldi and the laughter of the members
+of the Camorra still ringing in my ears.
+
+I hailed a cab and dragged Dorcas into it.
+
+"Phew!" I said, "that was a desperate game to play, Dorcas. What did
+you want to see in his pocket-book?"
+
+"What I found," said Dorcas quietly. "A pawnticket for a diamond and
+ruby bracelet and a diamond and ruby pendant, pawned in the name of
+Claude Charrington. I imagined from the description given me at the
+pawnbroker's that the man was Rinaldi. Now I know that he pawned
+them on his own account, because he still has the ticket."
+
+"How did he get them? Did Claude Charrington give them to him or sell
+them to him, or----"
+
+"No. The person who gave them to Rinaldi is the person who put the
+new set back in their place."
+
+"Do you know who that is?"
+
+"Yes, now. The fact of Rinaldi having the ticket in his possession
+supplied the missing link. You remember my telling you how Mrs.
+Charrington discovered just as she was going to tell her husband of
+her loss that the jewels were no longer missing."
+
+"Yes; she found them the day after her husband's return."
+
+"Exactly. Directly she told me I asked her to let me examine the
+drawer in which the jewel-case was kept. It lay at the bottom of the
+left-hand top drawer of a chest of drawers near the bed. It was
+locked, and the keys were carried about by Mrs. Charrington and put
+on the dressing-table at night after the bedroom door had been
+bolted.
+
+"As soon as possible I went with Mrs. Charrington to the bedroom.
+Then I took the keys and opened the drawer. The box she told me was
+where it was always kept, at the bottom of the drawer underneath
+layers of pocket-handkerchiefs and several cardboard boxes of odds
+and ends which she kept in the drawer.
+
+"I turned the things over carefully one by one, and on a
+handkerchief which lay immediately on the top of the jewel-case
+I saw something which instantly attracted my attention. It was a
+tiny red spot, which looked like blood. Opening the jewel-case, I
+carefully examined the jewellery inside, and I found that the pin
+of the diamond lizard extended slightly beyond the brooch and was
+very sharp at the point.
+
+"I then examined the keys, and upon the handle of the key of the
+jewel-box I found a tiny red smear. What had happened was as clear
+as noonday. Whoever had put the jewels back had pricked his or her
+finger with the pin of the lizard. The pricked finger had touched
+the handkerchief and left the little blood-mark. Still bleeding
+slightly, the finger had touched the key in turning it in the lock
+of the jewel-case.
+
+"Saying nothing to Mrs. Charrington, who was in the room with me,
+I cast my eyes searchingly in every direction. Suddenly I caught
+sight of a tiny mark on the sheet which was turned over outside the
+counterpane. It was a very minute little speck, and I knew it to be
+a blood-stain.
+
+"'Who sleeps on this side near the chest of drawers?' I asked
+Mrs. Charrington, and she replied that her husband did.
+
+"'Did he hear no noise in the night?'
+
+"'In the night!' she exclaimed with evident astonishment. 'Good
+gracious! no one could have come into the room last night without
+our hearing them. Whoever put my jewels back did it in the daytime.'
+
+"I didn't attempt to undeceive her, but I was certain that Mr.
+Charrington himself had replaced the jewels. He had probably done
+it in the night when his wife was fast asleep. A night-light burnt
+all night--she was a heavy sleeper--he had risen cautiously--the
+matter was a simple one. Only he had pricked his finger with the
+brooch-pin."
+
+"But what was his motive?" I cried.
+
+"His motive! That was what I wanted to make sure to-night, and I did
+so when I found the pawnticket in the name of Claude Charrington in
+the pocket-book of Carlo Rinaldi--Claude Charrington is the father's
+name as well as the sons."
+
+"Then you think Rinaldi pawned the original jewels for Mr.
+Charrington? Absurd!"
+
+"It _would_ be absurd to think that," said Dorcas, "but my theory is
+not an absurd one. I have ascertained the history of Carlo Rinaldi
+from sources at my command. Rinaldi was a valet at the West End. He
+married a rich man's cast-off mistress. The rich man gave his
+mistress a sum of money as a marriage portion. He gave her up not
+only because he had ceased to care for her, but because he had
+fallen in love and was about to marry again. He was a widower. He
+lost his first wife when their only child, a son, was a few months
+old, and he was himself quite a young man. The mistress was Madame
+Rinaldi, the rich man was Mr. Claude Charrington."
+
+"Well, where does that lead you?"
+
+"To this. During the time that Mrs. Charrington is sure that the
+jewels were not in her case I trace them. I find the diamond lizard
+in the possession of a young lady who lodges in the house of Madame
+Rinaldi. I find the pendant and bracelet at Attenborough's, and
+to-night I have seen the pawnticket for them in the possession of
+Madame Rinaldi's husband. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind
+that whoever took the jewels out of Mrs. Charrington's case gave
+them to the Rinaldis. I have proved by the prick of the finger and
+the blood-stain that Mr. Charrington put a similar set of jewels to
+those abstracted back into the empty cases in his wife's jewel-box,
+therefore he must have been aware that they were missing.
+Mrs. Charrington has not breathed a word of her loss to anyone but
+myself, therefore he must have been privy to their abstraction, and
+it is only reasonable to conclude that he abstracted them himself."
+
+"But the lizard in Miss Dolamore's possession must have been given
+her by Claude, her sweetheart, and he was suddenly flush of money
+just after the theft--remember that!"
+
+"Yes; I have ascertained how he got that money. Johnson, the footman,
+told me that the young fellow had given him a tip for the Leger.
+'And he gets good information sometimes from a friend of his,' said
+Johnson. 'Why, only last week he backed a thirty-three to one chance,
+and won a couple of hundred. But don't say anything to the missis,'
+said Johnson. 'She might tell the governor, and Mr. Claude isn't in
+his good books just at present.'"
+
+I agreed with Dorcas that that would account for the young fellow's
+confusion when his step-mother saw the notes, but I urged there was
+still the lizard to get over.
+
+"I think that is pretty clear. The Irish housemaid tells me that
+Madame is very friendly with Miss Dolamore. I shouldn't be surprised
+if she went down to Richmond with her that day to show Claude the
+lizard and get him to buy it for more than it was worth. I know the
+Rinaldis were pressed at the time for ready money."
+
+I confessed to Dorcas that her theory cleared Claude Charrington of
+suspicion, but it in no way explained why Mr. Charrington, senior,
+should send his former mistress his present wife's jewels.
+
+At that moment the cab stopped. We were at Oak Tree Road. Dorcas got
+out and put out her hand. "I can't tell you why Mr. Charrington
+stole his wife's jewellery," she said, "because he hasn't told me."
+
+"And isn't likely to," I replied with a laugh.
+
+"You are mistaken," said Dorcas. "I am going to his chambers
+to-morrow to ask him, and then my task will be done. If you want to
+know how it ends, come to Eastbourne on Sunday. I am going to spend
+the day there with Paul."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+The sunshine was streaming into the pretty seaside apartments
+occupied by the Denes, the midday Sunday meal was over, and Paul and
+Dorcas were sitting by the open window.
+
+I had only arrived at one o'clock, and Dorcas had postponed her
+story until dinner was over.
+
+"Now," said Dorcas, as she filled Paul's pipe and lighted it for
+him, "if you want to know the finish of the 'Romance of the
+Charrington Jewels,' smoke and listen."
+
+"Did you go to Mr. Charrington as you said you would?" I asked as
+I lit my cigar.
+
+"_Smoke and listen!_" said Dorcas with mock severity in her tone of
+command. "Of course I went. I sent up my card to Mr. Charrington.
+
+"Ushered into his room he gave me a searching glance and his face
+changed.
+
+"'This card says 'Dorcas Dene, Detective'?' he exclaimed. 'But
+surely--you--you are very like someone I have seen lately!'
+
+"'I had the pleasure of being your wife's parlour-maid, Mr.
+Charrington,' I replied quietly.
+
+"'You have dared to come spying in my house!' exclaimed the
+barrister angrily.
+
+"'I came to your house, Mr. Charrington, at your wife's request. She
+had missed some jewellery which you presented to her a day or two
+before you went into the country. Circumstances pointed to your
+son Claude as the thief, and your wife, anxious to avoid a scandal,
+called me in instead of the police.'
+
+"The barrister dropped into his chair and rubbed his hands together
+nervously.
+
+"'Indeed--and she said nothing to me. You are probably aware that
+you have been investigating a mare's nest--my wife's jewellery is
+not missing.'
+
+"'No, it is not missing now, because when you returned from the
+country you put a similar set in its place.'
+
+"'Good heavens, madame!' exclaimed Mr. Charrington, leaping to
+his feet, 'what do you mean?'
+
+"'Pray be calm, sir. I assure you that I have come here not to make
+a scandal but to avoid one. After you gave your wife the jewellery,
+you for some reason secretly abstracted it. The jewellery you
+abstracted passed into the possession of Mrs. Rinaldi, whose husband
+pawned two of the articles at Attenborough's. As your wife is quite
+aware that for many days her jewellery was missing, I am bound to
+make an explanation of some kind to her. I have come to you to know
+what I shall say. You cannot wish her to believe that your son took
+the jewellery?'
+
+"'Of course Claude must be cleared--but what makes you believe
+that I put the jewellery back?'
+
+"'On the night you did it you pricked your finger with the pin of
+the lizard. You left a small bloodstain on the linen that was in
+the drawer, and when you turned down the sheet to get back into bed
+again your finger was still bleeding, and left its mark as evidence
+against you. Come Mr. Charrington, explain the circumstances under
+which you committed this rob-- well, let us say, made this exchange,
+and I will do my best to find a means of explaining matters to
+your wife.'
+
+"Mr. Charrington hesitated a moment, and then, having probably made
+up his mind that it was better to have me on his side than against
+him, told me his story.
+
+"At the time that he kept up an irregular establishment he made the
+lady who is now Mrs. Rinaldi many valuable presents of jewellery.
+Among them were the articles which had resulted in my becoming
+temporarily a parlour-maid under his roof. When the lady married
+Rinaldi, he provided for her. But the man turned out a rascal,
+squandered and gambled away his wife's money, and forced her to pawn
+her jewellery for him. He then by threats compelled her to forward
+the tickets to her former protector, and implore him to redeem them
+for her as she was without ready money to do so herself. The dodge
+succeeded two or three times, but Mr. Charrington grew tired, and
+on the last occasion redeemed the jewellery and put it in a drawer
+in his desk, and replied that he could not return it, as it would
+only be pawned again. He would keep it until the Rinaldis sent the
+money to redeem it, and then they could have it.
+
+"Then came his wife's birthday, and he wished to make her a present
+of some jewellery. He selected a bracelet and a pendant in diamonds
+and sapphires and a true-lovers'-knot brooch in diamonds, and ordered
+them to be sent to his chambers.
+
+"He was busy when they came, and put them away for safety in a
+drawer immediately below the one in which he had some weeks
+previously placed the jewellery belonging to Mrs. Rinaldi.
+Mrs. Rinaldi's jewellery, each article in its case, he had wrapped
+up in brown paper and marked outside 'jewellery,' to distinguish it
+from other packets which he kept there, and which contained various
+articles belonging to his late wife.
+
+"On the eve of his wife's birthday he found he would have to leave
+town for the day without going to his office. He had to appear in a
+case at Kingston-on-Thames, which had come on much sooner than he
+had expected. Knowing he would not be back till late at night, he
+sent a note and his keys to his clerk, telling him to open his desk,
+take out the jewellery which had recently been forwarded from
+Streeter's, and send it up to him at his house. He wished his wife
+many happy returns of the day, apologised for not having his present
+ready, but said it would be sent up, and she should have it that
+evening.
+
+"The clerk went to the desk and opened the wrong drawer first. Seeing
+a neatly tied-up parcel labelled 'jewellery,' he jumped to the
+conclusion that it was the jewellery wanted. Not caring to trust it
+to a messenger, he went straight up to the house with it, and handed
+it to Mrs. Charrington herself, who concluded it was her husband's
+present. When she opened the parcel she noticed that the cases were
+not new, and supposed that her husband had bought the things
+privately. She was delighted with the jewellery--a bracelet and
+pendant in diamonds and rubies and a diamond lizard.
+
+"When her husband returned to dinner he was horrified to find his
+wife wearing his former mistress's jewellery. But before he could
+say a word she kissed him and told him that these things were just
+what she wanted. 
+
+"He hesitated after that to say a mistake had been made, and thought
+that silence was best. The next day Mrs. Charrington received news
+of her brother's death, and had to go into deep mourning. The new
+jewellery was put away, as she would not be able to wear it for
+many months.
+
+"That afternoon at Mr. Charrington's chambers Rinaldi called upon
+him. Desperately hard up, he had determined to try and bully
+Mr. Charrington out of the jewellery. He shouted and swore, and
+talked of an action at law and exposure, and was delighted to find
+that his victim was nervous. Mr. Charrington declared that he could
+not give him the jewellery back. Whereupon Mr. Rinaldi informed him
+that if by twelve o'clock the next day it was not in his possession
+he should summon him for detaining it.
+
+"Mr. Charrington rushed off to his jewellers. How long would it take
+them to find the exact counterpart of certain jewellery if he
+brought them the things they had to match? And how long would they
+want the originals? The jewellers said if they had them for an hour
+and made a coloured drawing of them they could make up or find a set
+within ten days.
+
+"That night Charrington abstracted the birthday present he had given
+his wife from her jewel-box. The next morning at ten o'clock it was
+in the hands of the jewellers, and at mid-day when Rinaldi called to
+make his final demand the jewellery was handed over to him.
+
+"Then Mr. Charrington went out of town. On his return the new
+jewellery was ready and was delivered to him. In the dead of the
+night while his wife was asleep he put it back in the empty cases.
+And that," said Dorcas, "is--as Dr. Lynn, at the Egyptian Hall, used
+to say--'how it was done.'"
+
+"And the wife?" asked Paul, turning his blind eyes towards Dorcas;
+"you did not make her unhappy by telling her the truth?"
+
+"No, dear," said Dorcas. "I arranged the story with Mr. Charrington.
+He went home and asked his wife for her birthday present. She
+brought the jewels out nervously, wondering if he had heard or
+suspected anything. He took the bracelet and the pendant from the
+cases.
+
+"'Very pretty, indeed, my dear,' he said. 'And so you've never
+noticed the difference?'
+
+"'Difference?' she exclaimed. 'Why--why--what do you mean?'
+
+"'Why, that I made a dreadful mistake when I bought them and only
+found it out afterwards. The first that I gave you, my dear, were
+imitation. I wouldn't confess to you that I had been done, so I took
+them without your knowing and had real ones made. The real ones I
+put back the other night while you were fast asleep.'
+
+"Oh, Claude, Claude,' she cried, 'I am so glad. I did miss them,
+dear, and I was afraid there was a thief in the house, and I dared
+not tell you I'd lost them. And now--oh, how happy you've made me!'"
+
+* * * * * * * 
+
+Two months later Dorcas told me that young Claude Charrington was
+engaged to Miss Dolamore with his father's consent, but he had
+insisted that she should leave Fitzroy Street at once, and acting
+on private information which Dorcas had given him, he assured
+Claude that diamond lizards were unlucky, and as he had seen
+Miss Dolamore with one on he begged to offer her as his first
+present to his son's intended a very beautiful diamond
+true-lovers'-knot in its place. At the same time he induced his
+wife to let him have her diamond lizard for a much more valuable
+diamond poodle with ruby eyes.
+
+So those two lizards never met under Mrs. Charrington's roof, and
+perhaps, all things considered, it was just as well.
+
+
+
+_VII. THE MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE_
+
+I had received an invitation to spend the evening at Oak Tree Road,
+but I had been detained by business, and it was past nine o'clock
+when my cabman, making a mistake in the number, pulled up at a house
+short of the Denes'. While I was feeling in all my pockets for the
+odd sixpence to make up the cabman's fare--as usual with the
+fraternity he had no change--the door opened, and an
+elegantly-dressed lady came hurriedly out.
+
+She started back nervously as she saw me, and I at once jumped to
+the conclusion that it was a lady who was paying her first visit
+to a private detective, and was fearful that someone might see her
+and recognise her.
+
+She seemed to hesitate for a moment, till she saw me hand the fare
+to the cabman, then she hailed him and got in, lifted the trap door,
+and said, "Drive to St. John's Wood Chapel."
+
+"She'll tell him where to drive her when she gets to the chapel," I
+said to myself, as I stood and watched the cab out of sight.
+
+The lady, in her agitation, had forgotten to pull the door to, so I
+entered without ringing, walked up the little garden path, and found
+Dorcas waiting for me in the hall with the house door wide open.
+
+"You've been having a good look at my lady visitor, Mr. Saxon," she
+said with a smile. "Well, she will probably think you are
+another client."
+
+"And pray how do you know that I have been having 'a good look,'
+as you call it, at your visitor?" I said laughingly.
+
+"I heard your cab drive up just as I was letting her out; she left
+the door ajar, and you would have come in at once if you had not
+been otherwise engaged. You didn't even come in, you know, when the
+cab drove away, so I conclude that you looked after it for some time,
+probably making a mental note of the number."
+
+"You have guessed exactly what passed in my mind. I saw you had an
+aristocratic visitor, and a nervous one, and I wondered if there was
+anything for me to do this time."
+
+"I don't know yet," said Dorcas, "but come into the drawing-room.
+Mother is spending the evening with some friends of hers, and Paul
+has been alone for nearly an hour. My new client's first visit has
+been rather a long one."
+
+Dorcas led the way to the drawing-room, where Paul was sitting on
+the sofa with Toddlekins, the bulldog, stretched out across his
+knees.
+
+Paul put the dog gently down, and rising as I entered, held out his
+hand. "We expected you two hours ago," he said, "but better late
+than not at all. I thought Dorcas's visitor was going to stay for
+hours, and that you weren't coming, and that I should really begin
+to recognise the value of Mrs. Lester as a conversationalist in my
+solitary condition."
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, dear," said Dorcas, taking her husband's arm,
+and drawing him gently down on the sofa beside her, "but it's always
+the way. Directly I've made up my mind to have a quiet evening with
+you, somebody is sure to call."
+
+"Is it a case?" asked Paul.
+
+"Yes, and I'm afraid it will be rather a difficult one; but it won't
+take me away from home altogether, thank goodness. At least, I hope
+not. But I'll tell you all about it, and see what you think. I
+haven't made up my mind yet how to start on my task."
+
+"Oh, it isn't a pressing case, then?" I said. "I was hoping that I'd
+arrived just in the nick of time for an 'engagement.'"
+
+"It isn't particularly pressing _now,_" replied Dorcas, looking at
+the clock on the mantelpiece, "but it will be at midnight, for at
+that hour I have to be under a lamp-post in Berkeley Square."
+
+"Under a lamp-post in Berkeley Square at midnight! Then I'm sure
+Paul will agree with me that it _is_ a case for my assistance. I'm
+to be under that lamp-post with Dorcas, am I not, Paul?"
+
+Paul smiled. "That's for Dorcas to say, old fellow. She knows her
+business better than we do. But we'll leave the lamp-post for
+further consideration. Let us have the case, Dorcas."
+
+"It is simple so far," said the famous lady detective, "but none
+the less mysterious for that. The lady who has just left me is the
+wife of Mr. Judkins Barraclough."
+
+"What--the mysterious millionaire, who three years ago fell
+apparently from the clouds and descended on London in a shower of
+gold?--the Crœsus who seems to have discovered the royal road to the
+perpetual paragraph?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Then the lady I met at the gate was Lady Anna Barraclough. He
+married her about a year ago. She was a young widow. Her first
+husband ran through all his money on the turf and left her very
+badly off when he died at the age of seven-and-twenty of--let me
+see, what did they call it?--typhoid, I think."
+
+"Quite right," said Dorcas, "your account agrees with the short
+sketch of her career Lady Anna Barraclough has already given me."
+
+"What could she have married a man like Judkins Barraclough
+for?--his money, I suppose. He must be five-and-forty, and he has
+all the worst qualities of the ostentatious parvenu. Is it about him
+that she has come to you?"
+
+"Yes, poor girl--for she is only five-and-twenty now--she made me
+feel quite sorry for her when she told me her story. She has had a
+terrible experience of marriage. Her first husband she loved, and
+he spent every shilling of her money as well as his own. When
+Mr. Judkins Barraclough met her she was dependent on a married
+brother, the Earl of Dashton, whose wife detested her. When the
+millionaire proposed to her, the poor girl, worried and embittered
+by the constant humiliation of her dependent position, accepted his
+offer in the recklessness of despair. She didn't expect to be happy
+with a man whom she felt it was impossible she could ever love, but
+at least she hoped for peace. And now--guess why she has come to me
+to-night."
+
+"To get a divorce, I should think. It would be about the best thing
+you _could_ get for her, if all I hear of Mr. Judkins Barraclough's
+manners and habits is correct. I suppose he married her because he
+thought a wife who was a lady of title would be a good advertisement
+for him. _Is_ it to get a divorce she has come to you?"
+
+"No, Lady Anna has a haunting suspicion that the man she married
+is not her legal husband--that he had a wife living when he
+married her."
+
+"Then if she thinks that why doesn't she go to the police?"
+
+Dorcas shook her head. "You forget the man is a millionaire living
+in Berkeley Square--the police would hardly take up a charge
+against him made by his wife merely because she _suspects._ 'If I am
+really this man's wife,' said Lady Anna, 'I have no right to go to
+the police, for he is my husband. I have come to you to find out
+everything for me first. Oh, if you can only tell me that I am a
+free woman, that I owe no further allegiance to this wretch whom I
+despise--whom I loathe--you will have done me the greatest service
+one woman can do for another!' Poor girl! It was a cry from the
+heart. I felt sorry for her, and I promised that I would do anything
+I could to ease her mind, or, at any rate, to put an end to the
+dreadful state of suspicion and uncertainty in which she is at
+present living. Oh!" said Dorcas, with a shudder, "how horrible it
+must be, to have to go about before the world with a smiling face
+bearing the name of a man you detest--to have to submit alike to the
+curses and the caresses of a man whom in your heart you believe to
+be the husband of another woman!"
+
+"And what is your idea?" I said, looking scrutinisingly at
+Dorcas's face.
+
+"To-night I shall start on my voyage of discovery. I shall see Mr.
+Judkins Barraclough, the famous millionaire, and then I shall begin
+to trace him back and back until I find out----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Who he was before he arrived in London from South America and
+set up as a millionaire."
+
+"But you say Lady Anna Barraclough suspects her husband of being a
+bigamist--what has put such an unpleasant idea into her head?"
+
+"Something that has occurred lately. Mr. Judkins Barraclough, who
+has been coarse and cruel for some time past, has suddenly altered
+his demeanour. He has lost all his old over-bearing brutality. He
+is nervous, and has evidently something on his mind. One night her
+ladyship retired late to her own apartment, which is separated from
+her husband's by his dressing-room. At two in the morning she heard
+the front door close, and a few minutes later she heard her husband
+enter the dressing-room. It seemed to her that he must be in pain,
+for she distinctly heard him every now and then utter a low groan.
+
+"She rose and went quietly into the dressing-room and found
+Mr. Judkins Barraclough washing a wound in his right arm with Condy.
+Lady Anna Barraclough saw at once that the wound looked like a
+bite--the marks of teeth were distinctly visible.
+
+"Mr. Judkins Barraclough stammered out an explanation. A savage dog
+had attacked him as he was coming through a back street on his way
+home. He had raised his umbrella to beat it off, and it had flown at
+him and fastened its teeth in his arm. Then, somewhat angrily, he
+told his wife to go back to her own room; he was all right.
+
+"Instantly Lady Anna Barraclough's suspicions were aroused. If a dog
+had bitten him her husband would have gone to a doctor's at once and
+had the wound dressed. Why should he come home and attend to it
+himself? There was only one solution--that the bite had been received
+under circumstances which he would be unable to explain
+satisfactorily."
+
+"Ah," said Paul, "it is a woman who bites as a rule, not a man."
+
+"Yes," replied Dorcas, "that was her ladyship's idea. Her husband
+had been bitten by a woman, and a woman only bites when she is mad
+with rage and her hands are being held.
+
+"Since that night Mr. Judkins Barraclough had been out nearly all
+day and has not returned till late. But he has not ordered his
+carriage to take or fetch him on one single occasion. These
+circumstances aroused her ladyship's suspicions that something was
+wrong, and that there was trouble in which a woman was concerned.
+Her husband had evidently quarrelled with one who had attacked him.
+
+"The attack--and what else could the bitten arm suggest?--would
+hardly be that of a mistress. A millionaire is not so shabbily
+treated in his gallantries, because a millionaire of the Judkins
+Barraclough type is only attractive on account of his wealth, and
+to bite a millionaire's arm is not exactly the way to retain his
+good graces. The man's altered demeanour, his evident fear of
+_something,_ the bitten arm, the long absences from home, and the
+non-employment of the carriages and horses all point, in Lady Anna's
+idea, to one thing--the power of some woman to interfere with him,
+perhaps to ruin him. Supposing in the old days, before he became
+wealthy, this man had a wife whom he had left in poverty, and she
+had discovered him, a wealthy bigamist, that would account for
+everything. But," said Dorcas, quietly, "supper's ready, and after
+supper I must be off."
+
+Paul lifted his sightless eyes to his wife's face.
+
+"There's a little invitation I should like you to give our guest
+to-night," he said, "I'm sure he'd like it, and I'm sure he
+deserves it."
+
+"And what is that, dear?"
+
+"Mrs. Dorcas Dene requests the pleasure of Mr. Saxon's company at
+11.45 for midnight, underneath the lamp-post immediately opposite
+the residence of Mr. Judkins Barraclough, in Berkeley Square."
+
+Dorcas laughed quite a ringing little laugh.
+
+"Of course, if _you_ wish it, dear," she said.
+
+Then turning to me with a quick resumption of her former seriousness
+of expression, she added:
+
+"Honestly I shall be glad of your company. From what her ladyship
+has told me I don't think this South American millionaire is exactly
+the sort of wild animal for a woman to hunt alone."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+It was half-past twelve when a hansom drove up to the door of
+No. --, Berkeley Square, and a gentleman with a long, loose summer
+overcoat got out and paid the cabman and ran up the steps.
+
+Dorcas had told me that Mr. Barraclough would probably arrive in a
+cab, as for several nights recently he had not ordered the carriage
+to meet him anywhere, so Lady Anna had informed her.
+
+Mr. Barraclough had let himself in with the latchkey before the
+cabman had pocketed his fare and picked up his reins to drive away.
+
+"Now," said Dorcas, "we must find out where that man took
+Mr. Barraclough up. It is somewhere he doesn't want known. That is
+the reason he doesn't order his carriage to fetch him. It may be
+only a street corner. But wherever it is, it is the first step
+backwards towards the goal that lies far away in the past."
+
+"But we can't tell the cabman to take us to where he picked his
+fare up, can we?" I said, hesitatingly.
+
+"Leave that to me," replied Dorcas. "You call the cabman."
+
+I obeyed, and the cabman turned his horse round and drew up to the
+kerb. Dorcas got half way in and then got out again and looked at
+the horse.
+
+"You've been driving too fast, cabman," she said; "why, your poor
+horse is breathing quite hard."
+
+"Lor' bless you, ma'am!" said the cabman, "that's nothing--that's
+his natural breathing! Why, he only come out of the yard half an
+hour ago, and I've only had one fare."
+
+"One fare? It must have been a good journey by the look of
+the horse."
+
+Then turning to me, she said:
+
+"Don't let us take this cab--we'll get another--the horse is
+done up."
+
+"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed the cabman. "That's a good one. Why,
+how far do you think the horse has come?"
+
+"Oh," said Dorcas, "perhaps from Hampstead or Brixton."
+
+"Hampstead or Brixton!" exclaimed the driver, wrathfully. "This
+here horse came out of the yard in St. Pancras just afore twelve
+o'clock, and a gent hailed me as was coming out of a house in
+Burton Crescent, and I drove him here, and that's all the work my
+horse has done to-night."
+
+"Oh, very well," said Dorcas. Then turning to me, she said:
+
+"Give the man a shilling and let him go. I'm not going to ride
+behind that horse."
+
+The man took the shilling and drove off, muttering to himself,
+and Dorcas and I strolled a little way along.
+
+"He came out of a house in Burton Crescent," she muttered;
+"that's something."
+
+"Why didn't you ask him which house?"
+
+"Too risky. The man might think something was up and find
+Barraclough to-morrow and tell him, in hope of a reward. But I took
+the man's number in case I want him later."
+
+"Very well. What are you going to do now?" I asked. "Are you going
+home?"
+
+"No--let us go to Burton Crescent."
+
+"What on earth's the good of that? You can't find out the house
+Mr. Barraclough came out of to-night. There's not the
+slightest clue."
+
+"There may be. Did you notice that when he put his umbrella up to
+stop the cabman he held it in his left hand?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"When he got out he shifted his umbrella to his right hand, and
+felt with his left hand in his left pocket for the silver.
+Mr. Judkins Barraclough is still feeling the effects of that bitten
+right arm."
+
+"Possibly--probably. But how on earth can his being temporarily
+left-handed guide us to the particular house he came out of in
+Burton Crescent?"
+
+"I don't say it will--but it may. Let us go."
+
+We took a cab, and got out at the end of Burton Crescent. We walked
+entirely round it, Dorcas Dene going up the steps of each house in
+turn, and examining them carefully.
+
+Suddenly she uttered a little cry of delight.
+
+"This is the house," she exclaimed. "Look!"
+
+She pointed to three or four rose leaves lying on the steps of
+No. ---.
+
+I looked at them bewildered, remembering that when Mr. Barraclough
+got out of the cab he had a large rose in the button-hole of his
+overcoat.
+
+"I see the leaves," I said. "But what on earth made you imagine
+they would be there, and--and where does the left hand come in?"
+
+"It's very simple," replied Dorcas. "I looked at Mr. Judkins
+Barraclough very carefully when he got out of the cab, and I noticed
+that the rose in his buttonhole was rather dilapidated. It had
+evidently been in contact with something, and several of the leaves
+were gone. Of course they might have dropped accidentally, but I
+instantly evolved a theory to account for the missing leaves. I
+glanced inside the cab while I was looking the horse up and down,
+there weren't any leaves there, so he hadn't crushed his rose in
+getting into it. If he had, some of the leaves would have fallen
+on the matting. I noticed that he used his left hand. The
+probability was that he hailed the cab with the umbrella in his
+left hand. The cabman said he was coming out of the house when he
+hailed him, so he would be on the steps at the time. Now, if you
+lifted your left hand hurriedly, as if hailing a cab that was
+passing, you would probably bring your arm up against the left side
+of your overcoat. Your arm would probably brush against a flower if
+you had one as large as a rose, and particularly if it projected as
+far forward as Mr. Barraclough's did. I said to myself, 'He might
+have knocked the leaves off that rose when he hailed the cab on a
+door-step in Burton Crescent.' My surmise fortunately turns out to be
+correct. Here are the rose leaves, and therefore this is the house."
+
+"It's wonderful!" I said, "but after all, it's just one chance in
+a thousand."
+
+"It is that one chance," replied Dorcas, quietly, "that in
+ninety-nine cases out of a hundred brings the criminal into the hands
+of justice. Chance is the most successful detective the world has
+ever known."
+
+Dorcas stepped back and looked up at the house.
+
+"There are no lights anywhere," she said, "but we'll see what the
+inhabitants are like."
+
+She seized the bell and rang it violently, and then gave a loud
+double knock. There was no sound inside the house. We waited a few
+minutes, then Dorcas knocked again, this time loud enough to wake up
+everybody in the Crescent. Still no one came, and the house remained
+in darkness.
+
+"I'll try again," she said. "I'm sure to wake the people up on one
+side or other, and they'll think, perhaps, it's their knocker, and
+look out of the window."
+
+Dorcas knocked this time for fully a couple of minutes, and at last
+she produced the desired effect.
+
+A third floor window in the next house opened, and a woman put her
+head out.
+
+"What's the good of your knocking there, a-frightening people out
+of their seven senses;" she called out angrily. "What do you want?"
+
+"Mr. Robinson," replied Dorcas. "A relative of his is dying, and I've
+come to fetch him."
+
+"You've come to the wrong house, then," said the woman, snappishly.
+"There ain't no Mr. Robinson there, 'cos the house is empty.
+Leastways, there ain't nobody sleepin' there."
+
+"But Mr. Robinson was here this evening," replied Dorcas, unabashed.
+
+"Oh, you mean the gent as has taken the place and ain't moved in yet,
+perhaps--I don't know his name. He ain't there now, I tell you. He
+only comes there now and then, and nobody's living there, and the
+tradespeople don't call. If you can't believe me, ask a policeman,
+only for goodness' sake leave off knocking. You're making yourself
+a noosance to the neighbourhood."
+
+Dorcas thanked her informant, and we moved away. "Good-night," said
+Dorcas, as we got to the corner. "I'll take a cab and go home now.
+Mr. Barraclough is renting an empty house. I must find out why
+he does so."
+
+"When shall we do that?"
+
+"The day after to-morrow. I must have a couple of days to myself
+now. If you've nothing to do, come to Oak Tree Road in the evening
+the day after to-morrow, at ten o'clock."
+
+I assured Dorcas that I should be delighted. I saw her into a cab,
+and wished her good-night, and went home, wondering to myself what
+on earth a millionaire with a magnificent establishment in Berkeley
+Square could want with an empty house in Burton Crescent.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+During the afternoon of the appointed day I received a telegram--
+"Come evening dress. Dorcas."
+
+When I arrived at Oak Tree Road at ten o'clock in the evening, I
+found Dorcas busily engaged in trying the wick of a dark lantern,
+and on the floor beside her lay an open brown paper parcel filled
+with goloshes.
+
+"Good gracious," I exclaimed, "are you going burgling?"
+
+"Something very like it," she replied, lighting the lantern to
+satisfy herself that it was all right. "Just try on those goloshes
+and see if any of them will fit over your boots."
+
+"But what do I want with goloshes? It's a perfectly dry night."
+
+"You are going burgling with me--that is, of course, if you are not
+afraid."
+
+"Burgling in evening dress!" I exclaimed. "I'm not afraid to do
+anything that you tell me is right, but I haven't been brought up to
+the profession, you know."
+
+I selected a pair of goloshes which I thought likely to suit, and
+found they fitted over my boots perfectly.
+
+"That's all right--put them in that bag," said Dorcas, pointing to a
+black bag on the sofa. Then she blew the lamp out, and fastening it
+to a leather belt, fitted it round her waist.
+
+"You look like a female policeman," I exclaimed, "but you're not
+going through the streets with that on!"
+
+"Nobody will see it under my long cloak. Here is a box of silent
+matches, put that in the bag too."
+
+I obeyed mechanically.
+
+"Now," said Dorcas. "come to supper. Paul is in the dining-room
+waiting for us. We don't start till twelve."
+
+"But where are we going?"
+
+"To look over that empty house in Burton Crescent," replied Dorcas,
+quite calmly. "I have seen Lady Anna Barraclough to-day. Her husband
+wears his keys on a chain. The chances are that the key he uses to
+let himself into Burton Crescent will be on the bunch. He wouldn't
+carry it loose for fear of leaving it in his pocket when he changed
+his clothes, and perhaps forgetting it just when he wanted it. I
+shall have his keys directly he is asleep to-night, so Heaven grant
+him sweet repose directly he lays his head on the pillow. I reckon
+on having his keys before two o'clock in the morning."
+
+"But how will you manage it?"
+
+"I have arranged it with her ladyship. They occupy, you remember,
+two rooms separated by Mr. Barraclough's dressing-room. There he
+leaves all his clothes for his valet to brush and attend to in the
+morning. After he is asleep, Lady Barraclough will go quietly into
+the dressing-room from her room, and detach the keys from the chain,
+which is attached to his braces. I shall be on the opposite side of
+the square in a four-wheel cab, which will be driven by a cabman
+whom I frequently engage and whom I can trust. Sitting in the cab I
+shall avoid the attention of the policeman, who might otherwise
+wonder why you and I were loitering about so long in one place. But
+from the cab I shall be watching the windows of No. --, Berkeley
+Square. When I see a corner of the blind pulled up in Lady
+Barraclough's room, and a lighted candle shown for a moment, I
+shall know she has the keys."
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's all very well. But how is she going to give
+you the keys?"
+
+"She isn't--she is going to give them to you."
+
+"To me!" I exclaimed; "where?--when?--how?"
+
+"You will be strolling about smoking a cigar. Being in evening dress
+you will not attract the notice of any inquisitive policeman, should
+one happen to be about. You will watch for that signal, too, and when
+you see it, you will go up the steps of No. -- as if you were going
+to ring to be let in.
+
+"Lady Anna will come quietly downstairs, open the door, and give you
+the keys. Then you will walk away quietly into Piccadilly. My cab
+will follow and stop opposite Walsingham House. Then you will get in
+and we shall drive to the top of Burton Crescent. Our cabman will
+wait for us round the corner."
+
+"In case of our having to make a run for it?"
+
+"No--because at five o'clock in the morning Lady Anna Barraclough
+will creep downstairs again and feel in the letter box."
+
+"What for--a note from you?"
+
+"No--the keys. You will put them there when we have done with them.
+Then she will go back into her husband's dressing-room, fasten them
+on to the chain on his braces again, and he will get up in the
+morning and see them and never dream that they have been having a
+'night out.'"
+
+"And suppose the key of the house isn't on the bunch?"
+
+"Then we shall have had our journey for nothing. But the reasonable
+supposition is that it will be. Now come to supper, and make a good
+one, for we have a rough night's work before us."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Two hours later a light flashed in a second floor window of
+No. --, Berkeley Square, and with a beating heart I went up the
+steps. The door opened quietly, and a woman's hand came cautiously
+through the opening and touched mine. I clutched the keys, slipped
+them into my pocket, and strode away in the direction of Piccadilly.
+
+When the four-wheel cab stopped I got in and gave the keys to Dorcas.
+"So far, so good," she said. "Now with average luck we shall get
+into that empty house without attracting attention, and discover the
+millionaire's secret."
+
+Dorcas was holding the keys up to the light that came through the
+cab window and examining them carefully.
+
+"There are two latchkeys at any rate," she said. "Let us hope that
+one of them will unlock the cupboard in which Mr. Judkins Barraclough
+keeps his skeleton."
+
+
+
+_VIII. THE EMPTY HOUSE_
+
+As the cab made its way towards Burton Crescent I am not ashamed to
+confess that I had misgivings as to the success of our enterprise.
+Not having been brought up to burglary, I contemplated with something
+akin to nervousness my début as a "cracksman," and I pictured to
+myself the awkward predicament in which we should find ourselves if
+we were discovered by a watchful policeman, creeping about a house
+with goloshes over our boots and a dark lantern and silent matches
+in our possession.
+
+I put the point to Dorcas. As we had probably the key of the house
+in Burton Crescent with us, why should we compromise our position
+by taking the implements of burglary with us?
+
+"Because," said Dorcas, "it is better to be over-cautious than
+over-bold in my profession. If there _should_ be anyone in the
+house I want to _see_ them before they hear me, and that is why
+I have taken precautions with our boots and with our light."
+
+"Do you think Mr. Barraclough has visited the house since we
+were there?"
+
+"Yes; I watched the house for a short time last evening. A
+dark-complexioned, white-haired old gentleman, with a closely
+cropped white moustache and gold spectacles, let himself in about
+nine o'clock. No such person came out again. But towards midnight
+the door was opened, and a gentleman in a long grey overcoat came
+out. That person I did not see enter; but of course that is not
+conclusive, as I only commenced to watch about eight in the
+evening."
+
+"And the person who came out was----?"
+
+"Judkins Barraclough."
+
+"Do you think the dark old man will be in the house to-night?"
+
+"No," said Dorcas, in an emphatic tone, "I don't! But I have some
+more interesting information gathered during the last two days round
+the neighbourhood. The local tradespeople, who are always on the
+watch when the 'To Let' is taken out of the windows of a house, saw
+a van at the door delivering goods one day last week. The person who
+was superintending the disposal of the goods was an old gentleman
+with very white hair and gold spectacles, and a closely-cropped,
+white moustache. His face and hands were very dark, and he looked
+like a native of India in European clothes. The baker's man, seeing
+the door open and cases being delivered, presented his master's card.
+The Indian gentleman replied in excellent English that the family
+would not be coming in for a month or six weeks."
+
+"Then this Indian gentleman must be the dark man you saw go in. Have
+you any clue to his identity?"
+
+"I have ascertained certain particulars concerning him. To find out
+who delivered the goods at Burton Crescent was my next object. It
+is the general custom for policemen to take the name on a van that
+is delivering or removing goods from a house. Many robberies have
+been traced in this way. The constable on duty in the neighbourhood
+at that time was able to tell me to whom the van belonged. I went at
+once to a retired police sergeant whom I frequently employ to make
+ordinary private inquiries, and gave him instructions to find out
+where the van took the goods from, and if possible what they were.
+
+"In a few hours he sent me his report. The van had brought two cases
+of brandy from a firm of wine merchants; hammers, saws, nails, etc.,
+from an ironmonger's; half a dozen large indiarubber mats, and
+several rolls of wire netting. All these things, it was found, had
+been purchased and paid for by a white-haired gentleman in gold
+spectacles, having the appearance of a native of India. He gave his
+name and address as Mr. Aleem Mohammed, No. ---, Burton Crescent."
+
+"Well, you can soon find out who Mr. Aleem Mohammed is by the
+numbers of the notes he paid to the house agents. Banknotes are
+always useful clues."
+
+"Mr. Aleem Mohammed has evidently thought of that," replied Dorcas.
+"I _have_ traced the notes. They were obtained at a money-changer's
+at Charing Cross, by a gentleman answering to our Indian friend's
+description. He gave sovereigns for them. I have also been to the
+house agents. The house was let to Mr. Aleem Mohammed, who had paid
+a year's rent in advance in bank-notes, having no one in this country
+to whom he could refer."
+
+"Don't you think," I said, after a pause, "the whole business may be
+capable of a very simple explanation? After all, Barraclough hailed
+a cab from the doorstep, and the cab drove him direct to his own
+residence. Would he, if he were mixed up in any crime in connection
+with this house, establish a direct trail?"
+
+"I have been thinking that out myself," replied Dorcas; "but I am
+inclined to believe it was one of those slips that very cunning
+people do make occasionally. Coming out late at night, there was
+nobody about, and he hailed a cab barely thinking what he was doing,
+and said, 'Berkeley Square.' He stopped it as his own door with his
+umbrella mechanically, as one is in the habit of doing."
+
+"And the Indian gentleman?"
+
+"I believe is Barraclough. He is a dark man, browned with the sun
+of South America. He could easily carry a white wig and a false
+moustache and a pair of gold spectacles in a Gladstone bag coming
+out of the house at night. When he goes into it in the daylight as
+the Indian he can have that light overcoat and his flower in the
+same bag."
+
+"But the night we saw him he had no bag."
+
+"No; but he might easily have had the wig and moustache in his
+overcoat pocket. At any rate, I am pretty sure that Aleem Mohammed
+and Judkins Barraclough are the same person."
+
+"That is your theory, but you may be wrong."
+
+"Of course--I am not infallible."
+
+The cab stopped suddenly. We had reached Mabledon Place, where the
+man had orders to pull up. We got out and Dorcas gave him instructions
+to wait for us where he was, saying we might be a couple of hours
+or more.
+
+Taking the black bag with us, we made our way towards the Crescent,
+which was quite deserted. Dorcas took her goloshes out of the bag
+and put them on, and handed me mine, just as we got close to the
+house. Glancing round to see no one was about, she went noiselessly
+up the steps and tried the latchkeys. The first did not fit. It was
+probably the key of Berkeley Square. The second, to our intense
+relief, fitted perfectly. In a moment we were inside the hall and
+had closed the door noiselessly behind us.
+
+Dorcas, taking the dark lantern from her belt, struck a silent match
+and lighted the wick.
+
+The hall was bare, the stairs were uncarpeted, the whole atmosphere
+of the house suggested that it was uninhabited.
+
+The keys were on the outside of the doors of the two rooms on the
+ground floor.
+
+We opened the door of the front parlour. It was quite bare. Dorcas
+looked about it in every direction.
+
+Then she turned the tap of the gas on. There was no sound.
+
+"Gas cut off and meter taken away when last tenant left," said
+Dorcas. "The occupant must have used candles or a lamp."
+
+"There's nothing in that," I said. "A good many people prefer them."
+
+"Quite so. _I_ hope he used candles. But let us have a peep
+at the next room."
+
+Dorcas went first and opened the door of the back parlour.
+
+The room was empty.
+
+Dorcas looked carefully round it, then turned the light of the
+bull's-eye to the floor. Suddenly she stooped down.
+
+"He's used this room," she said; "see, here is the tallow trail."
+
+She pointed to some small blobs of tallow grease near the doors of
+a cupboard, which was in one corner of the room.
+
+"He has used candles here," she said. "The candle has stood some
+time on the floor and guttered. That was while the person who had
+been carrying it was busy with both hands inside this cupboard."
+
+The cupboard was locked, but the lock was a paltry one, and drawing
+a little instrument from the bag Dorcas soon had it open.
+
+"How odd to take the trouble to lock up such rubbish as this!"
+exclaimed Dorcas, drawing out a bundle of ragged female clothing.
+
+I stared at the articles as Dorcas held them up.
+
+"Good gracious!" I said. "These are the clothes of some wretched
+creature who must have been in the last stage of poverty. The dress
+is ragged and mud-stained, the  old red flannel petticoat almost in
+ribbons, the bonnet battered and black with grease. Faugh!
+put the things down."
+
+Dorcas was not inclined to abandon her find so readily, but
+presently she put the rags slowly back in the cupboard. "I wonder
+what he's done with the body?" she said quietly.
+
+I must confess that when Dorcas said that, I had an uncomfortable,
+creepy sensation. Could it be possible that such a wretched creature
+as these locked-up rags had once belonged to had been done to death
+in an empty house by the millionaire of Berkeley Square?
+
+Dorcas must have divined my thoughts. "Are you wondering if the body
+of the woman who wore these things is concealed on the premises?"
+she said.
+
+"Something of the sort was in my mind."
+
+"And I don't know what to think," said Dorcas. "If the body is
+buried, why on earth were not these accusing rags buried with it?"
+
+We went downstairs, and as we walked through the silent, deserted 
+passages of the basement, I felt suspiciously uncomfortable. A rat
+ran squeaking behind the wainscot, and I am ashamed to say that in
+my overwrought nervous condition I couldn't help giving a little
+cry of alarm.
+
+I tried to excuse my cowardice to Dorcas, but she stopped me.
+
+"Don't apologise," she said. "I am a great deal more afraid of
+rats than I am of human beings."
+
+We had passed into the back kitchen or scullery.
+
+"He has been here," she said.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"By the tallow trail. The guttering candle has left its traces here."
+
+She pointed out three blobs of tallow on the edge of the sink, and
+turned the light of the bull's-eye full on the trap. Then she passed
+her hand carefully over the surface and drew it away. A few
+exceedingly small damp atoms of pulpy water adhered to her palm.
+Dorcas examined the atoms carefully. "Probably red on one side and
+white on the other," she said. "I wonder where the bottles are?"
+
+"What bottles?"
+
+There were two short wooden shelves on each side of the sink. From
+the one on the left-hand side Dorcas took a chisel. It was evidently
+new, by the handle, but the edge was slightly rusty.
+
+"The bottles that the labels have been scraped from with this
+chisel," she said. "The labels have been damped at the sink. It is
+the wet on the label that has rusted the chisel."
+
+Suddenly she stooped down, and let the lantern flash round the room.
+Something among some rubbish in one corner attracted her attention.
+It was a small empty bottle, about the size of the bottles in which
+chemists sell toothache tincture. She picked the bottle up and
+examined it carefully.
+
+"It has been washed out," she said, "and there is nothing to tell us
+what it contained."
+
+"Does it matter?" I exclaimed. "It is hardly likely that Mr. Judkins
+Barraclough came here to wash bottles. That may have been done by
+the former tenants."
+
+"No, bottles have been scraped here recently. Fragments of the
+pulped paper are still in the sink, and that chisel is probably
+one of the tools that the Indian gentleman ordered from the
+ironmonger's."
+
+"Well, whatever the bottle contained we can't find it out here,"
+I said.
+
+"No, let's go into the front kitchen."
+
+In the front kitchen there were two cupboards and a kitchen dresser.
+The cupboards were not quite empty--on one shelf was a packet of
+coffee and a bag of sugar. On the kitchen dresser was a brown paper
+package open at one end. It contained eleven boxes of ordinary
+matches--the twelfth half empty, was lying on one of the dresser
+shelves.
+
+"The coffee bothers me," said Dorcas, "but the matches show that
+this is where the bottle washer lighted his candles of an evening.
+The candles themselves can't be far off."
+
+She looked at the dresser drawers. They had round wooden painted
+handles. She turned the light of the bull's-eye on to each handle.
+Then she touched the handle of the top left-hand drawer.
+
+"This is one he uses," she said.
+
+"How can you tell that?" I said, gazing curiously on the handle, and
+failing to see any indication which could have guided Dorcas in
+her selection.
+
+"Look at this handle carefully," she said, "and you will see a tiny
+atom of paper still adhering to it. The person who washed bottles
+has come from the sink with a wet hand and opened that drawer. A
+scrap of the label has adhered to his hand and come off on the
+drawer handle, as he grasped it to pull it open. And now I am sure
+that the person who washed the bottles and opened this drawer was
+Mr. Judkins Barraclough."
+
+I stared at Dorcas in amazement. "How can the drawer handle tell
+you that?" I exclaimed.
+
+"You remember that Barraclough's right arm was evidently too painful
+to use, and he was using his left the night we saw him get out of
+the cab. Well, the rusty chisel was thrown after use on the left-hand
+side of the sink, and here the drawer has been pulled open with the
+left hand."
+
+"Surely a left hand doesn't mark itself on a drawer handle."
+
+"No, but this drawer stuck and was difficult to open. The person
+trying it rested one hand--a wet and dirty one--on the dresser. See,
+here are five dirty finger-marks on the _right-hand_ side of the
+drawer."
+
+I looked where Dorcas had pointed, and indications were undoubtedly
+there. Dorcas had some difficulty in pulling the drawer open, and
+had to rest her own hand on the dresser. She tried with her left
+hand, and her right hand then fell exactly on the finger-marks.
+
+When the drawer at last yielded we looked eagerly inside it. There
+were two packets of common candles and back in the corner of the
+drawer half a dozen small bottles similar to the one we had found
+empty in the sink.
+
+Dorcas drew them out and examined them carefully. "All red labels,
+you see, with 'Poison' printed on them, 'Hydrate of Chloral' written
+above. They have all been purchased from different chemists--though
+one doesn't have to sign for chloral. Mr. Judkins Barraclough is
+using chloral for some purpose in this house, and after each bottle
+is used he removes the label."
+
+"Why should he do that?"
+
+"Well, he may not think it wise to leave empty labelled chloral
+bottles about. He is a cunning man, and is guarding against
+contingencies."
+
+"But what can he be doing with chloral here--in an empty house?"
+
+"We may find out before we leave it. At any rate, let us see if he
+uses any of the upper rooms."
+
+"We haven't searched the coal cellar yet," I said, suddenly
+recollecting the Euston-square mystery, and the discovery of the
+corpse of the poor "Canterbury Belle."
+
+"To get to the coal cellar you have to go out into the area in
+these houses," replied Dorcas. "He wouldn't do that."
+
+"The wine cellar, then?"
+
+Dorcas shook her head. "I looked at the door of that as we came by.
+It was ajar. If there was anything to conceal there it would be
+shut and locked."
+
+"But the cases of brandy----"
+
+"May be there--we'll go and see."
+
+The wine cellar was small and filled with old rubbish evidently
+left behind by the last tenants.
+
+But the brandy cases were there. One was opened and the lid
+off. There were only six bottles left. The straw envelopes of the
+other six lay on the floor.
+
+"Where are the empty bottles?" I said. "We ought to look for them."
+
+"Yes--that is what we will do next. I have an idea they are upstairs."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"As we came down the kitchen stairs I noticed a short straw lying on
+one of them. When the bottle was being taken out of the straw
+envelope in the cellar a loose straw or two caught on the clothes of
+the person handling it. As he went up the stairs the straw became
+disengaged by the action of walking and fell. We've searched the
+parlours carefully--now let us go upstairs to the first floor."
+
+There were two doors on the first floor. We tried the front room one
+first and found it unlocked and the room quite empty.
+
+"Now for the back room," said Dorcas.
+
+We went out on to the landing and tried the back room door.
+_It was locked._
+
+"If there is anything more to be found it will be here," exclaimed
+Dorcas, her face, which had been pale until now, suddenly
+flushing with excitement.
+
+"What can we do?--burst the door open?"
+
+"Yes--I came prepared for emergencies."
+
+Dorcas produced an instrument which is technically known as a
+"jemmy" from her bag and handed it to me.
+
+I had once burst open a door, but I was not a skilled workman, so it
+was a good ten minutes before the door yielded, bursting open with a
+crash and tearing away with it a portion of the lock, which fell
+with a clatter to the ground.
+
+As the door fell it seemed as though there was an echo of it
+downstairs.
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed Dorcas. "It sounded like the front door
+shutting."
+
+"Nonsense," I said, "it's the echo--the house is empty."
+
+Dorcas had turned her lantern on the staircase, and was peering
+over the balustrade. All was silent as the grave.
+
+"I must have been mistaken," she said. "Good heavens, there can't
+have been someone in the house all this time--someone who has
+slipped past us and escaped. If I thought that I----"
+
+She paused and uttered a little cry. She had turned the lantern
+right round, and it lit up the room, the door of which we had just
+burst open.
+
+As the light of the bull's-eye dimly illuminated the apartment an
+extraordinary sight met our eyes. The centre of the room was
+entirely occupied by what looked like a huge wire cage. Wire netting
+nearly six feet high was stretched from side to side of the room on
+ropes which were fastened in the walls by iron rings. Across the
+inside, at the top and bottom of what was practically a wired-off
+passage was wire netting of the same height securely fixed and
+lashed firmly in its place, and to prevent the occupant of the cage
+from climbing over the top it was roofed in with a double thickness
+of coarse sacking securely fastened to the wirework. The floor was
+covered with indiarubber mats nailed down to keep them in place.
+
+"Good gracious!" I exclaimed. "Is it a menagerie, or a cage for some
+wild animal, or what?"
+
+Suddenly Dorcas grasped my arm, and put her finger to her lips.
+In one corner of the cage, on a rug, covered over by a scarlet
+blanket, lay a woman.
+
+"She must be dead!" I exclaimed, starting back with horror. "Only a
+corpse could sleep through the crash of that door."
+
+"No," said Dorcas, creeping up close to the wire netting. "She is
+breathing--see, the blanket rises and falls."
+
+"What can it mean? Is she some mad woman whom Barraclough is
+keeping here?"
+
+Dorcas did not answer. She was gazing earnestly at the face of the
+sleeper. It was the face of a woman of about forty--a dark woman
+who must once have been strikingly handsome. Dorcas let the light
+fall upon it for a minute or two, but the sleeper made no movement.
+Her breathing was strangely heavy. Suddenly Dorcas touched my arm
+and pointed to an open bottle which stood near the rug.
+
+"Brandy," she said. "That's where the six bottles have gone to."
+
+"Is she in a drunken stupor, do you think?"
+
+"Drunken, perhaps, is hardly the word," replied Dorcas; "you forget
+the empty chloral bottles."
+
+"You think that the chloral is for her?"
+
+"Yes; this woman is under the influence of it now. A man or a woman
+who takes chloral would sleep through an earthquake. A drunken man
+or woman would certainly have been startled by the noise we made
+just now. In some mysterious way she has been got into this house,
+and is being kept here a prisoner by Mr. Judkins Barraclough. He
+probably dissolves a dose of chloral and puts it into each bottle
+of brandy he brings to the poor creature."
+
+"What can be the object of that?"
+
+"The chloral is given, I take it, with the same object as this wire
+cage has been built around her (probably while she lay helpless and
+insensible under the influence of the drug)--to keep her from
+making a noise, shouting or beating against the walls, or going to
+the windows and attracting the attention of the neighbours. The man
+who has got this woman in his power comes here daily, but probably
+only after dark, and has to leave her alone at night and for many
+hours during the day. She is caged in to keep her from beating the
+walls, and she is dosed with chloral in order to keep her from
+moving about or making the slightest noise."
+
+"And the object?"
+
+"To let her kill herself with the brandy."
+
+"Then why the chloral?--that sends her to sleep and prevents her
+from drinking as much as she would."
+
+"If she were left with the brandy alone she would become violent and
+be able to shriek. She might in an access of delirium tear down her
+cage and get free. No--kept here without food and with a plentiful
+supply of brandy she will die slowly of alcoholic poisoning. But
+she must die quietly--hence the chloral."
+
+"What an infamous villain!"
+
+"Yes, and a desperate one. This is the woman who bit him that night.
+There must have been a violent struggle after he got her here. This
+woman is probably his first wife. There cannot be any other reason
+for Mr. Barraclough's mysterious proceedings."
+
+"But now we have found her," I exclaimed, "what do you propose
+to do?"
+
+"We must break through this netting, and try to rouse her first,"
+replied Dorcas. "Her gaoler doesn't go near her--see here is where
+he evidently picks up the corner of the network to put in the
+bottles of drugged brandy. The nail has been pulled out and
+hammered in again several times."
+
+Dorcas went to the shutters, which were closed, and wrenched off
+the iron bar. "Take this," she said, "and break the netting down
+sufficiently for us to get in. It will make less noise than
+forcing out the staples."
+
+I took the bar, and several violent blows broke the lower portion of
+the cage loose from the fastenings in the floor. Then I pulled it up
+sufficiently high to allow Dorcas to crawl underneath.
+
+"This must be the woman whose clothes are downstairs in the
+cupboard," I said. "Fancy a woman reduced to such poverty as that--
+the wife of a millionaire. Why, she must have been a homeless
+outcast."
+
+Dorcas had gone to the sleeping woman's side. Gently she turned
+down the top of the scarlet blanket. Then she started back in
+astonishment. The woman was fully dressed in clothes of the
+best quality.
+
+Dorcas lifted the almost lifeless arm from the sleeper's side and
+pointed to her fingers. On one was a worn wedding-ring, and above it
+a diamond ring. A gold bangle set with jewels was round her wrist.
+
+"What does it mean?" said Dorcas, knitting her brows. "The rags
+concealed in the cupboard downstairs never belonged to _this_ woman."
+
+At that moment a church clock struck five.
+
+"Quick!" cried Dorcas, thrusting Mr. Barraclough's keys through the
+broken wirework into my hand. "You must go. The cab will be waiting
+in Mabledon Place. Go to Berkeley Square at once and put the keys in
+the letter-box. I wouldn't have that man suspect anything for all
+the money in the world!"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I shall stay here. Come back as soon as you can. Ring the bell
+gently and I will let you in. Ah! wait a moment!"
+
+She tore a leaf from her note-book, and scribbled something in lead
+pencil, then folded it, and gave it to me. It was addressed to a
+doctor in Endsleigh Gardens.
+
+"It's close by; call there on your way. Ring the doctor up and give
+him this. He is an old friend of mine and will come at once. Then
+go to Berkeley Square as fast as the horse can take you, and put
+the keys in the letter-box."
+
+There was nothing for it but to obey. When I closed the door of
+No. --- softly behind me it was broad daylight, and the birds were
+singing gaily in the trees.
+
+As I reached the pavement I involuntarily turned back to take a
+parting glance at the closely shuttered house in which I had left
+Dorcas Dene alone with the caged woman.
+
+As I did so I suddenly became aware of something which rooted me to
+the spot, and paralysed me beyond the power of uttering a cry.
+
+Crouching in the shadow of the next doorway was a dark man with
+white hair, a closely-cropped white moustache, and gold spectacles.
+
+
+
+_IX. THE CLOTHES IN THE CUPBOARD_
+
+I stood for a moment paralysed. Could it be possible that standing
+there watching me as I emerged from the house in Burton Crescent was
+the mysterious Indian whom Dorcas Dene believed to be no other than
+Judkins Barraclough himself? Judkins Barraclough in a false wig and
+a moustache and a pair of gold spectacles.
+
+Then suddenly I recollected the sound we had heard as of the
+shutting of the front door. Someone _had_ been in the house at the
+time. Someone had slipped past when we were in the front room, and
+as the door of the room in which the drugged woman lay yielded with
+a crash, that person had crept out into the street.
+
+And that person was the man with the white hair and moustache, whose
+dark eyes were gleaming at me through his gold spectacles now.
+
+What was I to do? To seize the Indian and call for the police? I
+hesitated to do that without Dorcas's authority. I went up the step
+of No. ---, and rang the bell gently.
+
+In a moment I heard Dorcas's voice saying, "Who's there?"
+
+"Openly quickly!" I exclaimed. "It is I."
+
+The door opened and I dashed into the hall and gasped out that the
+Indian was there--outside--what should I do?
+
+Dorcas frowned. "There was someone in the house, then!" she exclaimed
+"Oh, if I had only known it! But go to the doctor at once, and then
+get back with those keys."
+
+"And the Indian?"
+
+"Will probably get at Judkins Barraclough at the earliest opportunity
+and warn him."
+
+"You don't think the Indian is Barraclough disguised, now, then?"
+
+"No--that's impossible. I've been off the track a little, but
+I'm on it right enough now. Get away now, every minute is of value."
+
+Dorcas shut the door and I went down the steps again.
+
+I looked about for the Indian. While I was talking to Dorcas he had
+slipped out of the doorway and disappeared. I found the cab waiting,
+drove to the doctor in Endsleigh Gardens, left the note, and then
+told the cabman to drive me with all speed to the top of Berkeley
+Square.
+
+It was half-past five when I slipped the keys quietly into Mr.
+Barraclough's letter box. It was six o'clock when the cab stopped
+again in Mabledon Place.
+
+There were one or two people passing through the Crescent--people
+on the way to work. Outside some of the houses sleepy-looking girls
+were shaking the mats and beginning the household duties of the day.
+
+A policeman passed me and bade me good morning. I returned his
+salutation and walked past No. --- to the end of the Crescent. When
+I looked round he had sauntered away, and I returned and rang the
+bell.
+
+Dorcas greeted me with a smile.
+
+"Come along," she said, "come and have some coffee, for you must
+be faint."
+
+"But the woman?"
+
+"The doctor is with her and is bringing her round. I hope presently
+she will be able to give us a little information."
+
+Dorcas led the way and I followed her. To my astonishment, instead
+of going downstairs, where I presumed the coffee would be waiting
+for us, she went upstairs to the second floor.
+
+Dorcas opened a door and I found myself in a little back room that
+had evidently been inhabited. On a small Oriental table was a French
+coffee-making machine, and underneath it a spirit lamp. In the corner
+lay a couple of Oriental rugs, and on a small table by the side of it
+a box of cigarettes.
+
+"I've taken the liberty of using Mr. Aleem Mohammed's private
+apartments," said Dorcas. "He evidently furnished them for himself
+before he made his preparations for a lady visitor below."
+
+"Then he was here all the time?"
+
+"I don't think he was here that night when we nearly knocked the
+neighbourhood up. But he probably came in later, and he was certainly
+here last night when we were examining the house. It was only when we
+began to make a noise that he became aware of our presence. When he
+heard the locked door of the room on the first floor go, he let
+himself out, and kept watch from the outside."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Probably to see what we were going to do."
+
+"But Judkins Barraclough we know has the key of the house. How did
+the Indian get in?"
+
+"That's simple," replied Dorcas. "They had a latchkey each."
+
+I flung myself down on the rugs and drank the coffee which Dorcas
+had made.
+
+The coffee revived my drooping energies, and set my brain working
+again. If the Indian was living in the house and had escaped, what
+was there to prove that not he but Barraclough was the person who
+was helping the unhappy creature downstairs to her death?
+
+I asked Dorcas.
+
+"There is no doubt in my mind that Barraclough is the principal, and
+the Indian only an accomplice," she replied. "But we're not going to
+let the Indian escape."
+
+"We have done so."
+
+"No. Scotland Yard has him in hand."
+
+"Scotland Yard?"
+
+"Yes; directly the doctor came, which was almost immediately after
+he received my note, I went out and sent a message. Hark! there's a
+knock at the door."
+
+Dorcas ran downstairs bidding me follow her. She opened the
+front door, and a handsome foreign-looking dark man, of about
+eight-and-thirty, stepped into the hall, and politely raised his hat.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Stromberg, I am glad," exclaimed Dorcas, shaking hands
+heartily with the new arrival. "I was wondering who would be on
+duty. Allow me to introduce my friend Mr. Saxon. Mr. Saxon, this is
+Inspector Stromberg, of the Criminal Investigation Department."
+
+The inspector bowed and smiled.
+
+"I am always delighted to work with the famous Dorcas Dene," he said
+to me. "My only regret is that she is not one of us." Then turning
+to Dorcas, he said, "And now what is the mystery we are to have the
+pleasure of unravelling together this time?"
+
+"The mystery is, I hope, already unravelled," replied Dorcas
+demurely, "but I must not go any farther with it. It is now a matter
+for the police."
+
+"And the particulars?"
+
+Clearly and concisely Dorcas gave the famous detective officer the
+details of the great Barraclough mystery.
+
+When she had finished the Inspector rose and grasped Dorcas warmly
+by the hand.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Dene," he said, "you have done wonders. Of course, I
+must take charge of the case now as it is practically an attempt to
+murder, but I shall do nothing without your approval. The woman is
+in charge of the doctor still, I presume?"
+
+"Yes. He will call me as soon as she is able to converse coherently."
+
+"And Mr. Judkins Barraclough--what is your idea of the time to
+make the arrest?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"To-night?--but why give him so much law as that?"
+
+"I am very much interested in some ragged feminine garments concealed
+in a cupboard here. I want to find out what object Barraclough can
+have in keeping them there." She added something in a whisper that I
+was evidently not intended to hear. The great man looked grave.
+
+"It is a desperate thing to do," he said.
+
+"I am afraid that unless we find the Indian and get him to turn
+Queen's Evidence, the mere fact of Barraclough having a latchkey
+will not bring the attempted murder home to him. I like to clear up
+my cases thoroughly, and I confess that these pauper rags completely
+baffle me. By the bye, you acted on my information with regard to
+the Indian?"
+
+"Yes," said the Inspector. "What was your idea in asking me to have
+enquiries made at the post-offices you named?"
+
+"They are the only ones within reasonable distance which are opened
+before eight in the morning. My idea was that the man would go to a
+telegraph office and send a warning wire to Barraclough. You sent a
+messenger to the receiving offices near Berkeley Square?"
+
+"Yes; no telegram will be delivered to Barraclough without our
+knowledge of its contents."
+
+"That's all right," said Dorcas, "and of course, by some
+unaccountable accident, that telegram won't reach Mr. Barraclough."
+
+Inspector Stromberg shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The Post Office is a sacred institution in this country," he said.
+"The police do not tamper with letters and telegrams."
+
+"No," said Dorcas, sweetly, "but sometimes accidents happen--a
+careless clerk, for instance, puts a wrong address on the envelope
+and that causes somebody else to open the telegram _after_ the boy
+has gone."
+
+The Inspector gazed at Dorcas admiringly.
+
+A door on the first floor opened, and a voice called "Mrs. Dene."
+
+Presently she came down again.
+
+"The woman is better and able to talk. But the doctor says that for
+many reasons it would be as well to get her to a hospital at once."
+
+"Very well," said the Inspector. "Perhaps your friend will go and
+get a four-wheel cab?"
+
+I took the hint and went out. There were plenty of cabs near
+St. Pancras, and I was back with one in about five minutes.
+
+Wrapped in a blanket and a rug, which we brought down from the
+Indian's room, the doctor, myself, and Stromberg carried the woman,
+rescued from a lingering death, out of the house, and got her into
+the cab without attracting the attention of anyone but a small boy
+who was delivering newspapers. The doctor drove away with his
+patient, and we returned to the house, Dorcas taking the Inspector
+upstairs to see the cage and the Indian's apartment.
+
+At a quarter to eight a man arrived to see Stromberg and made a
+communication to him.
+
+"That's all right," exclaimed the Inspector, and calling Dorcas, he
+told her that the Indian had just sent a telegram to Barraclough.
+
+"It won't be delivered till ten minutes past eight. I'll go up to
+the receiving office and arrange for that mistake in the address. I
+shall be there by eight o'clock, which is the time they open. Stop
+here till I come back."
+
+In an hour Stromberg returned radiant. He had the telegram:
+
+"Don't go house. See me at once old place. Important. M."
+
+"That's all right," said Dorcas. "Now I want to send another telegram
+to Barraclough." Dorcas tore a leaf from her pocket-book and wrote:
+"All over. Come Crescent, ten to-night."
+
+"I understand," said the Inspector. "I'll send it at once. In the
+meantime the men who are trying to track the Indian, will, I hope,
+succeed. They will bring him straight to the Yard to me. You had
+better be there this afternoon at three. There's only one thing
+that may upset _your_ plan. Suppose Barraclough comes here this
+afternoon, lets himself in, and finds the woman gone."
+
+"I've thought of that," said Dorcas. "But is he likely to in the
+daylight? It is easy to make him alter his determination if he does.
+Put a special policeman on with instructions to keep his eye on the
+door, and directly he sees anyone going towards it let him stroll
+up. Barraclough won't risk letting himself in with a latchkey under
+the eyes of a policeman. He'll go away again and come after dark
+and then we shall be ready for him."
+
+"You're right," said the Inspector. "I'll have the policeman put on.
+But there's one thing more--we know what we _want_ Barraclough to
+do, but how about the broken-open door--that will rouse his
+suspicions at once?
+
+"Send some workmen you can trust to put it right again. He's not
+likely to examine it very closely."
+
+"I'll send the workmen at once. You'll have to stay and let them in.
+A couple of hours will see them through. But who is going to stay
+here to let _us_ in?"
+
+"You'll want help to-night," replied Dorcas. "Send a plain clothes
+officer with the men--he can stay on in charge of the house."
+
+"Yes, that will do--and now--Au revoir."
+
+"What is this mysterious plan of yours?" I said to Dorcas, when
+the Inspector had gone.
+
+"Oh, I only wanted to see what Barraclough wanted with those old
+clothes. Now, I'm going to lie down for an hour in the Indian's
+room--I'm tired. You had better go home."
+
+"Aren't you going to let me see the end of it?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Certainly, if you wish it. I shall be back here at seven
+o'clock--come then."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+At seven o'clock that evening, I rang cautiously at No. ---,
+Burton Crescent. The Inspector opened the door to me.
+
+"Mrs. Dene's upstairs," he said, "front room, first floor."
+
+I went upstairs, found the door open and started back in
+astonishment. Dorcas was there, sitting on one of the small tables
+which had been brought down from the Indian's room, and in the
+corner sitting cross-legged and smoking a cigarette was Mr. Aleem
+Mohammed. Near him was a man, who was, I concluded the plain
+clothes officer from the Yard.
+
+Dorcas beckoned me out on to the landing.
+
+"You see, we've got Aleem," she said.
+
+"Yes, how did you manage it?"
+
+"The Yard promptly ran him down and brought him to Stromberg. The
+man, seeing his game is up, has given us every information.
+Stromberg has promised that if he helps us to-night he may get
+off lightly."
+
+"What has he told you?"
+
+"All we wanted to know. He is a man whom Barraclough employed in
+South America, and brought over here with him when he came.
+Barraclough made wealth rapidly in South America, and in fact
+accumulated a vast fortune equal to two or three millions of money,
+but he made the foundation of that fortune by unscrupulous means.
+Once in possession of money his natural ability enabled him to
+conduct his operations with skill, and his later successes were
+legitimate enough. But Aleem knew him in his shady days, so he tells
+us, and he didn't mean to be left in South America.
+
+"About a fortnight ago Barraclough went to him--he had a little flat
+in Great Russell Street--and offered him £5,000 if he would consent
+to get a house and take charge of a woman who was drinking herself
+to death. The rest you know. Aleem swears that he only got the house
+and the things Barraclough ordered him to, and that he has never
+interfered in any way with the woman."
+
+"But who got her here?"
+
+"Barraclough himself--but that we have learned from the woman
+herself. Stromberg interviewed her at the hospital. Her name is
+Judkins. Twenty years ago she married John Judkins, a clever but
+improvident clerk in the employ of a firm of financiers in the City.
+Judkins got into debt and difficulties and one day disappeared, and
+she never saw him again until lately.
+
+"She managed as well as she could for herself, and being a handsome
+woman did fairly well. One evening some weeks ago she was at the
+Empire when she heard a gentleman behind her call out 'Hullo,
+Judkins!' She turned and saw two gentlemen in evening dress greet
+each other. The name Judkins caused her eagerly to scrutinise the
+features of the elder of them. She recognised him in a moment as
+her husband----"
+
+I interrupted Dorcas with a remark which rose to my lips:
+
+"Why did the gentleman call Mr. Barraclough 'Judkins'?"
+
+"Most of his friends clip his double barrel name to that, I expect.
+But let me go on. After the two gentlemen separated, Mrs. Judkins
+followed her husband until he was in a quiet part of the promenade
+and then touched him on the shoulder and said 'Jack!'
+
+"Judkins started and turned as pale as his bronzed face would let
+him. Then he took her arm and they went out into Leicester Square
+together. He explained that he had intended to write to his wife
+after he decamped, but he had got into fresh trouble and had to
+clear out of the country. He had come back some years ago intending
+to find his wife, but he was in with a bad set and for his share in
+a fraud he had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. He had
+been out for a year, but he was still getting his living by his wits.
+
+"He had promised her he would do what he could for her, and gave her
+£50 in bank-notes. He met her by appointment some time after that,
+and made her a present of some jewellery and quite won her
+confidence, only he was always careful to warn her that he was
+still what the fraternity call 'crook,' and the police were keeping
+an eye on him.
+
+"One day he said he should have to lie quiet for a bit, and he told
+her to come to him where he was staying at No. ---, Burton Crescent.
+She was to come at midnight. He would, he hoped, have some money and
+jewellery to give her which he wanted her to take care of while he
+was away.
+
+"The woman fell into the trap. At midnight her husband let her in.
+The house was in darkness. He took her by the hand and led her
+upstairs.
+
+"Suddenly the idea came to her that all was not right--she grew
+nervous and tried to drag her hand away. The man seized her forcibly
+and thrust his arm across her mouth to stop her screaming. She
+struggled and bit fiercely into his flesh. He uttered a cry of rage,
+and thrust his pocket-handkerchief into her mouth. Then he held
+something to her nose, which she supposed must have been chloroform,
+for she remembers no more. When she came to herself she felt weak
+and unable to move, and was lying in a kind of cage in one of the
+rooms. She saw brandy by her side and she drank. The brandy was all
+she had, and she drank to drive away her terror. She confesses that
+she had been a hard drinker, and that on several occasions when
+Judkins met her she had been drinking heavily. It was probably this
+discovery which gave him the idea of letting her drink herself to
+death quietly, using the chloral as a means to an end."
+
+"And now?" I said as Dorcas finished her narrative.
+
+"And now she is getting round----Well?"
+
+The last word was addressed to Inspector Stromberg, who had come
+upstairs.
+
+"Everything is ready," he said. "I've two men posted out of sight
+in front, and there's no chance of an escape at the back."
+
+We went into the room all three together.
+
+"Now," said the Inspector to the Indian, "you quite understand what
+you are to do?"
+
+"Yes, I understand," replied Mr. Mohammed with a sickly grin.
+
+"And remember you can't save him. If you warn him and he tries to
+bolt, my men are outside--so you'll let him come in and do exactly
+as he tells you."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now, once more you are sure you have no idea to whom those old
+clothes in the cupboard belong, nor why Barraclough brought them here!
+
+"No; he must have brought them and put them there when I did not see."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+At ten o'clock there was the sound of a key turning in the lock
+downstairs. The house was in darkness. In the centre of the
+first-floor back room the cage, restored to its former condition,
+stood as before; only one side had been torn away by Aleem in order
+that he might ascertain if the woman was really dead. Covered over
+with a scarlet blanket lay something that looked like a human form.
+A cloth was flung over the face.
+
+Dorcas and I were sitting with the front room door open when we heard
+the key. Stromberg and the plain-clothes officer were nowhere to be
+seen.
+
+The Indian had taken down the sacking that formed the roof of the
+cage, and flung it into the corner. Through the thin partition that
+separated the back and front rooms two gimlet-holes had been bored.
+Dorcas knelt down and fixed her eyes to these. We could hear every
+word that was spoken.
+
+Barraclough called out softly, "Aleem, Aleem, are you there?"
+
+"I am here," answered Aleem. "Come up--all is over."
+
+Barraclough came quickly up the stairs. Aleem opened the door of
+the back room.
+
+"She died this morning early. Now, what are we to do? Bury her here?"
+
+"No; it would look like murder if the body was ever found, and one
+never knows. She'll be much safer buried in a cemetery."
+
+"In a cemetery?"
+
+"Yes--after an inquest. We had better let the law establish our
+innocence _in case_ of accidents. It's always safer to do the bold
+thing, Aleem--I've always found it so. Take this key, go downstairs,
+unlock the cupboard in the parlour, and bring me up a bundle of old
+clothes you'll find there--and bring a light."
+
+I almost thought I heard Dorcas give a sigh of relief. She had
+forgotten that she had burst the cupboard open. Had Barraclough gone
+himself he would have noticed it.
+
+Aleem went downstairs, and Dorcas rose quietly, went out softly, and
+stopped him as he came up. "Leave the door ajar," she said under her
+breath. Aleem evidently obeyed, for she remained outside.
+
+I took her vacant place at the peepholes.
+
+"Now," said Barraclough, as the Indian handed him the bundle and put
+the candle on the floor, "you're quicker-fingered than I am--go in
+and strip the body."
+
+The Indian hesitated. "Why should I do this?"
+
+"Why? Because you're going to have five thousand pounds. I'm not
+going to pay you and do the dirty work myself. Off with every
+rag--the jewels you can keep for yourself."
+
+Still the Indian hesitated. "But why should we strip the body?"
+he said.
+
+"Why?--to put those rags on it."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Well, then all we've got to do is wait till there isn't a soul
+about and then pop the body outside on the doorstep."
+
+"But the police--they will make inquiries."
+
+"The police will do nothing of the sort. A wretched, ragged outcast
+will be found on a doorstep dead. She will be taken to the mortuary
+and a post-mortem made. The cause of death will be found to be
+starvation and drink, and the body will be buried. The law doesn't
+trouble itself about paupers found dead on a doorstep."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Aleem, "that is what you wanted with those rags then?"
+
+"Yes. Now, then, let me see what sort of a lady's maid you make."
+
+At that moment the corpse moved slightly under the scarlet blanket.
+
+Barraclough sprang back. "You fool--she's _not_ dead!" he cried.
+
+"No," exclaimed Inspector Stromberg, leaping up and flinging the
+blanket from him. "We're all very much alive."
+
+At the same moment the sacking in the corner lifted up, and the
+plain-clothes officer slipped from under it, and Dorcas, pushing
+the door open, ran into the room.
+
+"Mr. Barraclough," said the Inspector. "I arrest you on a charge of
+attempting to murder your wife, Marian Judkins."
+
+The millionaire grasped the situation in a moment.
+
+"You infernal traitor!" he hissed at the mild Mohammed. "I'll--
+I'll----"
+
+In a moment the two officers had him by the arms.
+
+"Come along," said the Inspector. "We'll get a four-wheeler to the
+door. I presume you haven't got your brougham waiting outside?"
+
+As the men went downstairs with their prisoner, Dorcas nodded
+pleasantly to the Inspector.
+
+"Thank you so much," she said, "for helping me to find out what
+those clothes in the cupboard were for." Then she turned to me and
+said, "You've had twenty-four hours' excitement straight off--you
+must be tired. Go home and go to bed."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I'm going to Berkeley Square to tell the lady this scoundrel
+married that she is a free woman, and to offer her my sincere
+congratulations."
+
+
+
+_X. THE HAVERSTOCK HILL MURDER_
+
+The blinds had been down at the house in Oak Tree Road and the house
+shut for nearly six weeks. I had received a note from Dorcas saying
+that she was engaged on a case which would take her away for some
+little time, and that as Paul had not been very well lately she had
+arranged that he and her mother should accompany her. She would
+advise me as soon as they returned. I called once at Oak Tree Road
+and found it was in charge of the two servants and Toddlekins, the
+bulldog. The housemaid informed me that Mrs. Dene had not written,
+so that she did not know where she was or when she would be back,
+but that letters which arrived for her were forwarded by her
+instructions to Mr. Jackson, of Penton Street, King's Cross.
+
+Mr. Jackson, I remembered, was the ex-police-sergeant who was
+generally employed by Dorcas when she wanted a house watched or
+certain inquiries made among tradespeople. I felt that it would be
+unfair to go to Jackson. Had Dorcas wanted me to know where she was
+she would have told me in her letter.
+
+The departure had been a hurried one. I had gone to the North in
+connection with a business matter of my own on a Thursday evening,
+leaving Dorcas at Oak Tree Road, and when I returned on Monday
+afternoon I found Dorcas's letter at my chambers. It was written on
+the Saturday, and evidently on the eve of departure.
+
+But something that Dorcas did not tell me I learned quite
+accidentally from my old friend Inspector Swanage, of Scotland Yard,
+whom I met one cold February afternoon at Kempton Park Steeplechases.
+
+Inspector Swanage has a greater acquaintance with the fraternity
+known as "the boys" than any other officer. He has attended race
+meetings for years, and the "boys" always greet him respectfully,
+though they wish him further. Many a prettily-planned coup of theirs
+has he nipped in the bud, and many an unsuspecting greenhorn has he
+saved from pillage by a timely whisper that the well-dressed young
+gentlemen who are putting their fivers on so merrily and coming out
+of the enclosure with their pockets stuffed full of bank-notes are
+men who get their living by clever swindling, and are far more
+dangerous than the ordinary vulgar pickpocket.
+
+On one occasion not many years ago I found a well-known publisher at
+a race meeting in earnest conversation with a beautifully-dressed,
+grey-haired sportsman. The publisher informed me that his new
+acquaintance was the owner of a horse which was certain to win the
+next race, and that it would start at ten to one. Only in order not
+to shorten the price nobody was to know the name of the horse, as
+the stable had three in the race. He had obligingly taken a fiver
+off the publisher to put on with his own money.
+
+I told the publisher that he was the victim of a "tale-pitcher," and
+that he would never see his fiver again. At that moment Inspector
+Swanage came on the scene, and the owner of race horses disappeared
+as if by magic. Swanage recognised the man instantly, and having
+heard my publisher's story said, "If I have the man taken will you
+prosecute?" The publisher shook his head. He didn't want to send his
+authors mad with delight at the idea that somebody had eventually
+succeeded in getting a fiver the best of him. So Inspector Swanage
+strolled away. Half an hour later he came to us in the enclosure and
+said, "Your friend's horse doesn't run, so he's given me that fiver
+back again for you." And with a broad grin he handed my friend a
+bank-note.
+
+It was Inspector Swanage's skill and kindness on this occasion that
+made me always eager to have a chat with him when I saw him at a race
+meeting, for his conversation was always interesting.
+
+The February afternoon had been a cold one, and soon after the
+commencement of racing there were signs of fog. Now a foggy afternoon
+is dear to the hearts of the "boys." It conceals their operations,
+and helps to cover their retreat. As the fog came up the Inspector
+began to look anxious, and I went up to him.
+
+"You don't like the look of things?" I said.
+
+"No, if this gets worse the band will begin to play--there are some
+very warm members of it here this afternoon. It was a day just like
+this last year that they held up a bookmaker going to the station,
+and eased him of over £500. Hullo?"
+
+As he uttered the exclamation the Inspector pulled out his race card
+and seemed to be anxiously studying it.
+
+But under his voice he said to me, "Do you see that tall man in a fur
+coat talking to a bookmaker? See, he's just handed him a bank-note."
+
+"Where?--I don't see him."
+
+"Yonder. Do you see that old gipsy-looking woman with race cards?
+She has just thrust her hand through the railings and offered one
+to the man."
+
+"Yes, yes--I see him now."
+
+"That's Flash George. I've missed him lately, and I heard he was
+broke, but he's in funds again evidently by his get-up."
+
+"One of the boys?"
+
+"Has been--but he's been on another lay lately. He was mixed up in
+that big jewel case--£10,000 worth of diamonds stolen from a
+demi-mondaine. He got rid of some of the jewels for the thieves, but
+we could never bring it home to him. But he was watched for a long
+time afterwards and his game stopped. The last we heard of him he
+was hard up and borrowing from some of his pals. He's gone now. I'll
+just go and ask the bookie what he's betting to."
+
+The Inspector stepped across to the bookmaker and presently returned.
+
+"He _is_ in luck again," he said. "He's put a hundred ready on the
+favourite for this race. By the bye, how's your friend Mrs. Dene
+getting on with her case?"
+
+I confessed my ignorance as to what Dorcas was doing at the present
+moment--all I knew was that she was away.
+
+"Oh, I thought you'd have known all about it," said the Inspector.
+"She's on the Hannaford case."
+
+"What, the murder?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But surely that was settled by the police? The husband was arrested
+immediately after the inquest."
+
+"Yes, and the case against him was very strong, but we know that
+Dorcas Dene has been engaged by Mr. Hannaford's family, who have
+made up their minds that the police, firmly believing him guilty,
+won't look anywhere else for the murderer of course they are
+convinced of his innocence. But you must excuse me--the fog looks
+like thickening, and may stop racing--I must go and put my men
+to work."
+
+"One moment before you go--why did you suddenly ask me how Mrs. Dene
+was getting on? Was it anything to do with Flash George that put it
+in your head?"
+
+The Inspector looked at me curiously.
+
+"Yes," he said, "though I didn't expect you'd see the connection. It
+was a mere coincidence. On the night that Mrs. Hannaford was murdered
+Flash George, who had been lost sight of for some time by our people,
+was reported to have been seen by the Inspector who was going his
+rounds in the neighbourhood. He was seen about half-past two o'clock
+in the morning looking rather dilapidated and seedy. When the report
+of the murder came in the Inspector at once remembered that he had
+seen Flash George in Haverstock Hill. But there was nothing in it--
+as the house hadn't been broken into and there was nothing stolen.
+You understand now why seeing Flash George carried my train of
+thought on to the Hannaford murder and Dorcas Dene. Good-bye."
+
+The Inspector hurried away and a few minutes afterwards the favourite
+came in alone for the second race on the card. The stewards
+immediately afterwards announced that racing would be abandoned on
+the account of the fog increasing, and I made my way to the railway
+station and went home by the members' train.
+
+Directly I reached home I turned eagerly to my newspaper file and
+read up the Hannaford murder. I knew the leading features, but every
+detail of it had now a special interest to me, seeing that Dorcas
+Dene had taken the case up.
+
+These were the facts as reported in the Press:
+
+Early in the morning of January 5 a maid-servant rushed out of the
+house, standing in its own grounds on Haverstock Hill, calling
+"Murder!" Several people who were passing instantly came to her and
+inquired what was the matter, but all she could gasp was, "Fetch a
+policeman." When the policeman arrived he followed the terrified
+girl into the house and was conducted to the drawing-room, where he
+found a lady lying in her night-dress in the centre of the room
+covered with blood, but still alive. He sent one of the servants
+for a doctor, and another to the police-station to inform the
+superintendent. The doctor came immediately and declared that the
+woman was dying. He did everything that could be done for her, and
+presently she partially regained consciousness. The superintendent
+had by this time arrived, and in the presence of the doctor asked
+her who had injured her.
+
+She seemed anxious to say something, but the effort was too much for
+her, and presently she relapsed into unconsciousness. She died two
+hours later, without speaking.
+
+The woman's injuries had been inflicted with some heavy instrument.
+On making a search of the room the poker was found lying between the
+fireplace and the body. The poker was found to have blood upon it,
+and some hair from the unfortunate lady's head.
+
+The servants stated that their master and mistress, Mr. and Mrs.
+Hannaford, had retired to rest at their usual time, shortly before
+midnight. The housemaid had seen them go up together. She had been
+working at a dress which she wanted for next Sunday, and sat up
+late, using her sewing-machine in the kitchen. It was one o'clock in
+the morning when she passed her master and mistress's door, and she
+judged by what she heard that they were quarrelling. Mr. Hannaford
+was not in the house when the murder was discovered. The house was
+searched thoroughly in every direction, the first idea of the police
+being that he had committed suicide. The telegraph was then set to
+work, and at ten o'clock a man answering to Mr. Hannaford's
+description was arrested at Paddington Station, where he was taking
+a ticket for Uxbridge.
+
+Taken to the police-station and informed that he would be charged
+with murdering his wife, he appeared to be horrified, and for some
+time was a prey to the most violent emotion. When he had recovered
+himself and was made aware of the serious position in which he stood,
+he volunteered a statement. He was warned, but he insisted on making
+it. He declared that he and his wife had quarrelled violently after
+they had retired to rest. Their quarrel was about a purely domestic
+matter, but he was in an irritable, nervous condition, owing to his
+health, and at last he had worked himself up into such a state, that
+he had risen, dressed himself, and gone out into the street. That
+would be about two in the morning. He had wandered about in a
+state of nervous excitement until daybreak. At seven he had gone into
+a coffee-house and had breakfast, and had then gone into the park and
+sat on a seat and fallen asleep. When he woke up it was nine o'clock.
+He had taken a cab to Paddington, and had intended to go to Uxbridge
+to see his mother, who resided there. Quarrels between himself and
+his wife had been frequent of late, and he was ill and wanted
+to get away, and he thought perhaps if he went to his mother for a
+day or two he might get calmer and feel better. He had been very much
+worried lately over business matters. He was a stockjobber, and the
+market in the securities in which he had been speculating was
+against him.
+
+At the conclusion of the statement, which was made in a nervous,
+excited manner, he broke down so completely that it was deemed
+desirable to send for the doctor and keep him under close observation.
+
+Police investigation of the premises failed to find any further clue.
+Everything pointed to the supposition that the result of the quarrel
+had been an attack by the husband--possibly in a sudden fit of
+homicidal mania--on the unfortunate woman. The police suggestion was
+that the lady, terrified by her husband's behaviour, had risen in
+the night and run down the stairs to the drawing-room, and that he
+had followed her there, picked up the poker, and furiously attacked
+her. When she fell, apparently lifeless, he had run back to his
+bedroom, dressed himself, and made his escape quietly from the
+house. There was nothing missing so far as could be ascertained--
+nothing to suggest in any way that any third party, a burglar from
+outside or some person inside, had had anything to do with the matter.
+
+The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder, and the
+husband was charged before a magistrate and committed for trial. But
+in the interval his reason gave way, and, the doctors certifying
+that he was undoubtedly insane, he was sent to Broadmoor.
+
+Nobody had the slightest doubt of his guilt, and it was his mother
+who, broken-hearted, and absolutely refusing to believe in her son's
+guilt, had come to Dorcas Dene and requested her to take up the case
+privately and investigate it. The poor old lady declared that she was
+perfectly certain that her son could not have been guilty of such a
+deed, but the police were satisfied, and would make no further
+investigation.
+
+This I learnt afterwards when I went to see Inspector Swanage. All
+I knew when I had finished reading up the case in the newspapers was
+that the husband of Mrs. Hannaford was in Broadmoor, practically
+condemned for the murder of his wife, and that Dorcas Dene had left
+home to try and prove his innocence.
+
+This history of the Hannafords as given in the public Press was as
+follows: Mrs. Hannaford was a widow when Mr. Hannaford, a man of
+six-and-thirty, married her. Her first husband was a Mr. Charles
+Drayson, a financier, who had been among the victims of the fire at
+the Paris Opéra Comique. His wife was with him in a loge that fatal
+night. When the fire broke out they both tried to escape together.
+They became separated in the crush. She was only slightly injured,
+and succeeded in getting out; he was less fortunate. His gold watch,
+a presentation one, with an inscription, was found among a mass of
+charred, unrecognisable remains when the ruins were searched.
+
+Three years after this tragedy the widow married Mr. Hannaford. The
+death of her first husband did not leave her well off. It was found
+that he was heavily in debt, and had he lived a serious charge of
+fraud would undoubtedly have been preferred against him. As it was,
+his partner, a Mr. Thomas Holmes, was arrested and sentenced to five
+years' penal servitude in connection with a joint fraudulent
+transaction.
+
+The estate of Mr. Drayson went to satisfy the creditors, but
+Mrs. Drayson, the widow, retained the house at Haverstock Hill,
+which he had purchased and settled on her, with all the furniture
+and contents, some years previously. She wished to continue living
+in the house when she married again, and Mr. Hannaford consented,
+and they made it their home. Hannaford himself, though not a wealthy
+man, was a fairly successful stockjobber, and until the crisis, which
+had brought on great anxiety and helped to break down his health, had
+had no financial worries. But the marriage, so it was alleged, had
+not been a very happy one and quarrels had been frequent. Old
+Mrs. Hannaford was against it from the first, and to her her son
+always turned in his later matrimonial troubles. Now that his life
+had probably been spared by this mental breakdown, and he had been
+sent to Broadmoor, she had but one object in life--to set her son
+free, some day restored to reason, and with his innocence proved to
+the world.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+It was about a fortnight after my interview with Inspector Swanage,
+and my study of the details of the Haverstock Hill murder, that one
+morning I opened a telegram and to my intense delight found that it
+was from Dorcas Dene. It was from London, and informed me that in
+the evening they would be very pleased to see me at Oak Tree Road.
+
+In the evening I presented myself about eight o'clock. Paul was
+alone in the drawing-room when I entered, but his face and his voice
+when he greeted me showed me plainly that he had benefited greatly
+by the change.
+
+"Where have you been, to look so well?" I asked. "The South of
+Europe, I suppose--Nice or Monte Carlo?"
+
+"No," said Paul smiling, "we haven't been nearly so far as that. But
+I mustn't tell tales out of school. You must ask Dorcas."
+
+At that moment Dorcas came in and gave me a cordial greeting.
+
+"Well," I said, after the first conversational preliminaries, "who
+committed the Haverstock Hill murder?"
+
+"Oh, so you know that I have taken that up, do you? I imagined it
+would get about through the Yard people. You see, Paul dear, how
+wise I was to give out that I had gone away."
+
+"Give out!" I exclaimed. "_Haven't_ you been away then?"
+
+"No, Paul and mother have been staying at Hastings, and I have been
+down whenever I have been able to spare a day, but as a matter of
+fact I have been in London the greater part of the time."
+
+"But I don't see the use of your pretending you were going away."
+
+"I did it on purpose. I knew the fact that old Mrs. Hannaford had
+engaged me would get about in certain circles, and I wanted certain
+people to think that I had gone away to investigate some clue which
+I thought I had discovered. In order to baulk all possible inquirers
+I didn't even let the servants forward my letters. They went to
+Jackson, who sent them on to me."
+
+"Then you were really investigating in London?"
+
+"Now shall I tell you where you heard that I was on this case?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You heard it at Kempton Park Steeplechases, and your informant was
+Inspector Swanage."
+
+"You have seen him and he has told you."
+
+"No; I saw you there talking to him."
+
+"_You_ saw me? You were at Kempton Park? I never saw you."
+
+"Yes, you did, for I caught you looking full at me. I was trying to
+sell some race cards just before the second race, and was holding
+them between the railings of the enclosure."
+
+"What! You were that old gipsy woman? I'm certain Swanage didn't
+know you."
+
+"I didn't want him to, or anybody else."
+
+"It was an astonishing disguise. But come, aren't you going to tell
+me anything about the Hannaford case? I've been reading it up, but
+I fail entirely to see the slightest suspicion against anyone but
+the husband. Everything points to his having committed the crime in
+a moment of madness. The fact that he has since gone completely out
+of his mind seems to me to show that conclusively."
+
+"It is a good job he did go out of his mind--but for that I am
+afraid he would have suffered for the crime, and the poor
+broken-hearted old mother for whom I working would soon have
+followed him to the grave."
+
+"Then you don't share the general belief in his guilt?"
+
+"I did at first, but I don't now."
+
+"You have discovered the guilty party?"
+
+"No--not yet--but I hope to."
+
+"Tell me exactly all that has happened--there may still be a chance
+for your 'assistant.'"
+
+"Yes, it is quite possible that now I may be able to avail myself of
+your services. You say you have studied the details of this case--
+let us just run through them together, and see what you think of my
+plan of campaign so far as it has gone. When old Mrs. Hannaford came
+to me, her son had already been declared insane and unable to plead,
+and had gone to Broadmoor. That was nearly a month after the
+commission of the crime, so that much valuable time had been lost.
+At first I declined to take the matter up--the police had so
+thoroughly investigated the affair. The case seemed so absolutely
+conclusive that I told her that it would be useless for her to incur
+the heavy expense of a private investigation. But she pleaded so
+earnestly--her faith in her son was so great--and she seemed such a
+sweet, dear old lady, that at last she conquered my scruples, and I
+consented to study the case, and see if there was the slightest
+alternative theory to go on. I had almost abandoned hope, for there
+was nothing in the published reports to encourage it, when I
+determined to go to the fountain-head, and see the Superintendent
+who had had the case in hand.
+
+"He received me courteously, and told me everything. He was certain
+that the husband committed the murder. There was an entire absence
+of motive for anyone else in the house to have done it, and the
+husband's flight from the house in the middle of the night was
+absolutely damning. I inquired if they had found anyone who had seen
+the husband in the street--anyone who could fix the time at which he
+had left the house. He replied that no such witness had been found.
+Then I asked if the policeman on duty that night had made any report
+of any suspicious characters being seen about. He said No, the only
+person he had noticed at all was a man well known to the police--a
+man named Flash George. I asked what time Flash George had been seen
+and whereabouts, and I ascertained that it was at half-past two in
+the morning, and about a hundred yards below the scene of the crime,
+that when the policeman spoke to him he said he was coming from
+Hampstead, and was going to Covent Garden Market. He walked away in
+the direction of the Chalk Farm Road. I enquired what Flash George's
+record was, and I ascertained that he was the associate of thieves
+and swindlers, and he was suspected of having disposed of some
+jewels, the proceeds of a robbery which had made a nine days'
+sensation. But the police had failed to bring the charge home to him,
+and the jewels had never been traced. He was also a gambler, a
+frequenter of racecourses and certain night-clubs of evil repute,
+and had not been seen about for some time previous to that evening."
+
+"And didn't the police make any further investigations in that
+direction?"
+
+"No. Why should they? There was nothing missing from the house--not
+the slightest sign of an attempted burglary. All their efforts were
+directed to proving the guilt of the unfortunate woman's husband."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I had a different task--mine was to prove the husband's innocence.
+I determined to find out something more of Flash George. I shut the
+house up, gave out that I had gone away, and took, amongst other
+things, to selling cards and pencils on racecourses. The day that
+Flash George made his reappearance on the turf after a long absence
+was the day he backed the winner of the second race at Kempton Park
+for a hundred pounds."
+
+"But surely that proves that if he had been connected with any crime
+it must have been one in which money was obtained. No one has
+attempted to associate the murder of Mrs. Hannaford with robbery."
+
+"No. But one thing is certain--that on the night of the crime Flash
+George was in the neighbourhood. Two days previously he had
+borrowed a few pounds of a pal because he was 'stoney broke.' When
+he reappears as a racing man he has on a fur coat, is evidently in
+first-class circumstances, and he bets in hundred-pound notes. He is
+a considerably richer man after the murder of Mrs. Hannaford than
+he was before, and he was seen within a hundred yards of the house
+at half-past two o'clock on the night that the crime was committed."
+
+"That might have been a mere accident. His sudden wealth may be the
+result of a lucky gamble, or a swindle of which you know nothing. I
+can't see that it can possibly have any bearing on the Hannaford
+crime, because nothing was taken from the house."
+
+"Quite true. But here is a remarkable fact. When he went up to the
+betting man he went to one who was betting close to the rails, and I
+pushed my cards in between and asked him to buy one. Flash George is
+a 'suspected character,' and quite capable on a foggy day of trying
+to swindle a bookmaker. The bookmaker took the precaution to open
+that note, it being for a hundred pounds, and examined it carefully.
+That enabled me to see the number. I had sharpened pencils to sell,
+and with one of them I hastily took down the number of that note----
+²ₓ❘35421."
+
+"That was clever. And you have traced it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And has that furnished you with any clue?"
+
+"It has placed me in possession of a most remarkable fact. The
+hundred-pound note which was in Flash George's possession on Kempton
+Park racecourse was one of a number which were paid over the counter
+of the Union Bank of London for a five-thousand-pound cheque over
+seven years ago. And that cheque was drawn by the murdered woman's
+husband."
+
+"Mr. Hannaford!"
+
+"No; her first husband--Mr. Charles Drayson."
+
+
+
+_XI. THE BROWN BEAR LAMP_
+
+When Dorcas Dene told me that the £100 note Flash George had handed
+to the bookmaker at Kempton Park was one which had some years
+previously been paid to Mr. Charles Drayson, the first husband of
+the murdered woman, Mrs. Hannaford, I had to sit still and think
+for a moment.
+
+It was curious certainly, but after all much more remarkable
+coincidences than that occur daily. I could not see what practical
+value there was in Dorcas's extraordinary discovery, because
+Mr. Charles Drayson was dead, and it was hardly likely that his wife
+would have kept a £100 note of his for several years. And if she had,
+she had not been murdered for that, because there were no signs of
+the house having been broken into. The more I thought the business
+over the more confused I became in my attempt to establish a clue
+from it, and so after a minute's silence I frankly confessed to
+Dorcas that I didn't see where her discovery led to.
+
+"I don't say that it leads very far by itself," said Dorcas. "But
+you must look at _all_ the circumstances. During the night of
+January 5 a lady is murdered in her own drawing-room. Round about
+the time that the attack is supposed to have been made upon her a
+well-known bad character is seen close to the house. That person,
+who just previously has been ascertained to have been so hard up
+that he had been borrowing of his associates, reappears on the
+turf a few weeks later expensively dressed and in possession of
+money. He bets with a £100 note, and that £100 note I have traced
+to the previous possession of the murdered woman's first husband,
+who lost his life in the Opéra Comique disaster in Paris, while on
+a short visit to that capital."
+
+"Yes, it certainly is curious, but----"
+
+"Wait a minute--I haven't finished yet. Of the bank-notes--several of
+them for £100--which were paid some years ago to Mr. Charles Drayson,
+not one had come back to the bank _before_ the murder.
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Since the murder _several_ of them have come in. Now, is it not a
+remarkable circumstance that during all those years £5,000 worth of
+bank-notes should have remained out!"
+
+"It is remarkable, but after all bank-notes circulate--they may
+pass through hundreds of hands before returning to the bank."
+
+"Some may, undoubtedly, but it is highly improbable that _all_ would
+under ordinary circumstances--especially notes for £100. These are
+sums which are not passed from pocket to pocket. As a rule they go
+to the bank of one of the early receivers of them, and from that
+bank into the Bank of England."
+
+"You mean that is an extraordinary fact that for many years not one
+of the notes paid to Mr. Charles Drayson by the Union Bank came back
+to the Bank of England."
+
+"Yes, that _is_ an extraordinary fact, but there is a fact which is
+more extraordinary still, and that is that soon after the murder of
+Mrs. Hannaford that state of things ceases. It looks as though the
+murderer had placed the notes in circulation again."
+
+"It does, certainly. Have you traced back any of the other notes
+that have come in?"
+
+"Yes; but they have been cleverly worked. They have nearly all been
+circulated in the betting ring; those that have not have come in
+from money-changers in Paris and Rotterdam. My own belief is that
+before long the whole of those notes will come back to the bank."
+
+"Then, my dear Dorcas, it seems to me that your course is plain, and
+you ought to go to the police and get them to get the bank to
+circulate a list of the notes."
+
+Dorcas shook her head. "No, thank you," she said. "I'm going to carry
+this case through on my own account. The police are convinced that
+the murderer is Mr. Hannaford, who is at present in Broadmoor, and
+the bank has absolutely no reason to interfere. No question has been
+raised of the notes having been stolen. They were paid to the man
+who died over seven years ago, not to the woman who was murdered
+last January."
+
+"But you have traced one note to Flash George, who is a bad lot, and
+he was near the house on the night of the tragedy. You suspect Flash
+George and----"
+
+"I do not suspect Flash George of the actual murder," she said, "and
+I don't see how he is to be arrested for being in possession of a
+bank-note which forms no part of the police case, and which he might
+easily say he had received in the betting ring."
+
+"Then what _are_ you going to do?"
+
+"Follow up the clue I have. I have been shadowing Flash George all
+the time I have been away. I know where he lives--I know who are
+his companions."
+
+"And do you think the murderer is among them?"
+
+"No. They are all a little astonished at his sudden good fortune. I
+have heard them 'chip' him, as they call it, on the subject. I have
+carried my investigations up to a certain point and there they stop
+short. I am going a step further to-morrow evening, and it is in
+that step that I want assistance."
+
+"And you have come to me?" I said eagerly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What do you want me to do?"
+
+"To-morrow morning I am going to make a thorough examination of the
+room in which the murder was committed. To-morrow evening I have to
+meet a gentleman of whom I know nothing but his career and his name.
+I want you to accompany me."
+
+"Certainly; but if I am your assistant in the evening I shall expect
+to be your assistant in the morning--I should very much like to
+see the scene of the crime."
+
+"I have no objection. The house on Haverstock Hill is at present
+shut up and in charge of a caretaker, but the solicitors who are
+managing the late Mrs. Hannaford's estate have given me permission
+to go over it and examine it."
+
+The next day at eleven o'clock I met Dorcas outside Mrs. Hannaford's
+house, and the caretaker, who had received his instructions,
+admitted us.
+
+He was the gardener, and an old servant, and had been present during
+the police investigation.
+
+The bedroom in which Mr. Hannaford and his wife slept on the fatal
+night was on the floor above. Dorcas told me to go upstairs, shut
+the door, lie down on the bed, and listen. Directly a noise in the
+room attracted my attention, I was to jump up, open the door and
+call out.
+
+I obeyed her instructions and listened intently, but lying on the
+bed I heard nothing for a long time. It must have been quite a
+quarter of an hour when suddenly I heard a sound as of a door
+opening with a cracking sound. I leapt up, ran to the balusters,
+and called over, "I heard that!"
+
+"All right, then, come down," said Dorcas, who was standing in the
+hall with the caretaker.
+
+She explained to me that she had been moving about the drawing-room
+with the man, and they had both made as much noise with their feet
+as they could. They had even opened and shut the drawing-room door,
+but nothing had attracted my attention. Then Dorcas had sent the man
+to open the front door. It had opened with the cracking sound that I
+had heard.
+
+"Now," said Dorcas to the caretaker, "you were here when the police
+were coming and going--did the front door always make a sound like
+that?"
+
+"Yes, madam. The door had swollen or warped, or something, and it
+was always difficult to open. Mrs. Hannaford spoke about it once
+and was going to have it eased."
+
+"That's it, then," said Dorcas to me. "The probability is that it
+was the noise made by the opening of that front door which first
+attracted the attention of the murdered woman."
+
+"That was Hannaford going out--if his story is correct."
+
+"No; Hannaford went out in a rage. He would pull the door open
+violently, and probably bang it too. That she would understand. It
+was when the door _opened again_ with a sharp crack that she
+listened, thinking it was her husband come back."
+
+"But she was murdered in the drawing-room?"
+
+"Yes. My theory, therefore, is that after the opening of the front
+door she expected her husband to come upstairs. He didn't do so,
+and she concluded that he had gone into one of the rooms downstairs
+to spend the night, and she got up and came down to find him and
+ask him to get over his temper and come back to bed. She went into
+the drawing-room to see if he was there, and was struck down from
+behind before she had time to utter a cry. The servants heard
+nothing, remember."
+
+"They said so at the inquest--yes."
+
+"Now come into the drawing-room. This is where the caretaker tells
+me the body was found--here in the centre of the room--the poker
+with which the fatal blow had been struck was lying between the body
+and the fireplace. The absence of a cry and the position of the body
+show that when Mrs. Hannaford opened the door she _saw no one_
+(I am of course presuming that the murderer was _not_ her husband)
+and she came in further. But there must have been someone in the
+room or she couldn't have been murdered in it."
+
+"That is indisputable; but he might not have been in the room at the
+time--the person might have been hiding in the hall and followed
+her in."
+
+"To suppose that we must presume that the murderer came into the
+room, took the poker from the fireplace, and went out again in order
+to come in again. That poker was secured, I am convinced, when the
+intruder heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He picked up the
+poker then concealed himself _here._"
+
+"Then why, my dear Dorcas, shouldn't he have remained concealed
+until Mrs. Hannaford had gone out of the room again?"
+
+"I think she was turning to go when he rushed out and struck her
+down. He probably thought that she had heard the noise of the door,
+and might go and alarm the servants."
+
+"But just now you said she came in believing that her husband had
+returned and was in one of the rooms."
+
+"The intruder could hardly be in possession of _her thoughts._"
+
+"In the meantime he could have got out at the front door."
+
+"Yes; but if his object was robbery he would have to go without the
+plunder. He struck the woman down in order to have time to get what
+he wanted."
+
+"Then you think he left her here senseless while he searched the
+house?"
+
+"Nobody got anything by searching the house, ma'am," broke in the
+caretaker. "The police satisfied themselves that nothing had been
+disturbed. Every door was locked, the plate was all complete, not
+a bit of jewellery or anything was missing. The servants were all
+examined about that, and the detectives went over every room and
+every cupboard to prove it wasn't no burglar broke in or anything
+of that sort. Besides, the windows were all fastened."
+
+"What he says is quite true," said Dorcas to me, "but something
+alarmed Mrs. Hannaford in the night and brought her to the
+drawing-room in her nightdress. If it was as I suspect, the opening
+of the front door, that is how the guilty person got in."
+
+The caretaker shook his head. "It was the poor master as did it,
+ma'am, right enough. He was out of his mind."
+
+Dorcas shrugged her shoulders. "If he had done it, it would have
+been a furious attack, there would have been oaths and cries, and
+the poor lady would have received a rain of blows. The medical
+evidence shows that death resulted from _one_ heavy blow on the
+_back_ of the skull. But let us see where the murderer could have
+concealed himself ready armed with the poker here in the
+drawing-room."
+
+In front of the drawing-room window were heavy curtains, and I at
+once suggested that curtains were the usual place of concealment on
+the stage and might be in real life.
+
+As soon as I had asked the question Dorcas turned to the caretaker.
+"You are certain that every article of furniture is in its place
+exactly as it was that night?"
+
+"Yes; the police prepared a plan of the room for the trial, and
+since then by the solicitors' orders we have not touched a thing."
+
+"That settles the curtains then," continued Dorcas. "Look at the
+windows for yourself. In front of one, close by the curtains, is an
+ornamental table covered with china and glass and bric-à-brac; and
+in front of the other a large settee. No man could have come from
+behind those curtains without shifting that furniture out of his way.
+That would have immediately attracted Mrs. Hannaford's attention and
+given her time to scream and rush out of the room. No, we must find
+some other place for the assassin. Ah!--I wonder if----"
+
+Dorcas's eyes were fixed on a large brown bear which stood nearly
+against the wall near the fireplace. The bear, a very fine, big
+specimen, was supported in its upright position by an ornamental
+iron pole, at the top of which was fixed an oil lamp covered with
+a yellow silk shade.
+
+"That's a fine bear lamp," exclaimed Dorcas.
+
+"Yes," said the caretaker, "it's been here ever since I've been in
+the family's service. It was bought by the poor mistress's first
+husband, Mr. Drayson, and he thought a lot of it. But," he added,
+looking at it curiously, "I always thought it stood closer to the
+wall than that. It used to--right against it."
+
+"Ah," exclaimed Dorcas, "that's interesting. Pull the curtains right
+back and give me all the light you can."
+
+As the man obeyed her directions she went down on her hands and
+knees and examined the carpet carefully.
+
+"You are right," she said. "This has been moved a little forward,
+and not so very long ago--the carpet for a square of some inches is
+a different colour to the rest. The brown bear stands on a square
+mahogany stand, and the exact square now shows in the colour of the
+carpet that has been hidden by it. Only here is a discoloured
+portion and the bear does not now stand on it."
+
+The evidence of the bear having been moved forward from a position
+it had long occupied was indisputable. Dorcas got up and went to the
+door of the drawing-room.
+
+"Go and stand behind that bear," she said. "Stand as compact as you
+can, as though you were endeavouring to conceal yourself."
+
+I obeyed, and Dorcas, standing in the drawing-room doorway, declared
+that I was completely hidden.
+
+"Now," she said, coming to the centre of the room and turning her
+back to me, "reach down from where you are and see if you can pick
+up the shovel from the fireplace without making a noise."
+
+I reached out carefully and had the shovel in my hand without
+making a sound.
+
+"I have it," I said.
+
+"That's right. The poker would have been on the same side as the
+shovel, and much easier to pick up quietly. Now, while my back is
+turned, grasp the shovel by the handle, leap out at me, and raise
+the shovel as if to hit me--but don't get excited and do it, because
+I don't want to realise the scene _too_ completely."
+
+I obeyed. My footsteps were scarcely heard on the heavy-pile
+drawing-room carpet. When Dorcas turned round the shovel was above
+her head ready to strike.
+
+"Thank you for letting me off," she said, with a smile. Then her
+face becoming serious again, she exclaimed: "The murderer of
+Mrs. Hannaford concealed himself behind that brown bear lamp, and
+attacked her in exactly the way I have indicated. But why had he
+moved the bear two or three inches forward?"
+
+"To conceal himself behind it."
+
+"Nonsense! His concealment was a sudden act. That bear is heavy--the
+glass chimney of the lamp would have rattled if it had been done
+violently and hurriedly while Mrs. Hannaford was coming downstairs--
+that would have attracted her attention and she would have called
+out, 'Who's there?' at the doorway, and not have come in looking
+about for her husband."
+
+Dorcas looked the animal over carefully, prodded it with her fingers,
+and then went behind it.
+
+After a minute or two's close examination, she uttered a little cry
+and called me to her side.
+
+She had found in the back of the bear a small straight slit. This
+was quite invisible. She had only discovered it by an accidentally
+violent thrust of her fingers into the animal's fur. Into this slit
+she thrust her hand, and the aperture yielded sufficiently for her
+to thrust her arm in. The interior of the bear was hollow, but
+Dorcas's hand as it went down struck against a wooden bottom. Then
+she withdrew her arm and the aperture closed up. It had evidently
+been specially prepared as a place of concealment, and only the most
+careful examination would have revealed it.
+
+"Now," exclaimed Dorcas, triumphantly, "I think we are on a straight
+road! This, I believe, is where those missing bank-notes lay
+concealed for years. They were probably placed there by Mr. Drayson
+with the idea that some day his frauds might be discovered or he
+might be made a bankrupt. This was his little nest-egg, and his death
+in Paris before his fraud was discovered prevented his making use of
+them. Mrs. Hannaford evidently knew nothing of the hidden treasure,
+or she would speedily have removed it. But _someone_ knew, and that
+someone put his knowledge to practical use the night that
+Mrs. Hannaford was murdered. The man who got in at the front door
+that night, got in to relieve the bear of its valuable stuffing; he
+moved the bear to get at the aperture, and was behind it when
+Mrs. Hannaford came in. The rest is easy to understand."
+
+"But how did he get in at the front door?"
+
+"That's what I have to find out. I am sure now that Flash George was
+in it. He was seen outside, and some of the notes that were concealed
+in the brown bear lamp have been traced to him. Who was Flash
+George's accomplice we may discover to-night. I think I have an idea,
+and if that is correct we shall have the solution of the whole
+mystery before dawn to-morrow morning."
+
+"Why do you think you will learn so much to-night?"
+
+"Because Flash George met a man two nights ago outside the Criterion.
+I was selling wax matches, and followed them up, pestering them. I
+heard George say to his companion, whom I had never seen with him
+before, 'Tell him Hungerford Bridge, midnight, Wednesday. Tell him
+to bring the lot and I'll cash up for them!'"
+
+"And you think the 'him'----?"
+
+"Is the man who rifled the brown bear and killed Mrs. Hannaford."
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+At eleven o'clock that evening I met Dorcas Dene in Villiers Street.
+I knew what she would be like, otherwise her disguise would have
+completely baffled me. She was dressed as an Italian street musician,
+and was with a man who looked like an Italian organ-grinder.
+
+Dorcas took my breath away by her first words.
+
+"Allow me to introduce you," she said, "to Mr. Thomas Holmes. This
+is the gentleman who was Charles Drayson's partner, and was sentenced
+to five years' penal servitude over the partnership frauds."
+
+"Yes," replied the organ-grinder in excellent English. "I suppose I
+deserved it for being a fool, but the villain was Drayson--he had
+all my money, and involved me in a fraud at the finish."
+
+"I have told Mr. Holmes the story of our discovery," said Dorcas. "I
+have been in communication with him ever since I discovered the notes
+were in circulation. He knew Drayson's affairs, and he has given me
+some valuable information. He is with us to-night because he knew
+Mr. Drayson's former associates, and he may be able to identify the
+man who knew the secret of the house at Haverstock Hill."
+
+"You think that is the man Flash George is to meet?"
+
+"I do. What else can 'Tell him to bring the lot and I'll cash up'
+mean but the rest of the bank-notes?"
+
+Shortly before twelve we got on to Hungerford Bridge--the narrow
+footway that runs across the Thames by the side of the railway.
+
+I was to walk ahead and keep clear of the Italians until I heard a
+signal.
+
+We crossed the bridge after that once or twice, I coming from one
+end and the Italians from the other, and passing each other about
+the centre.
+
+At five minutes to midnight I saw Flash George come slowly along
+from the Middlesex side. The Italians were not far behind. A minute
+later an old man with a grey beard, and wearing an old Inverness
+cape, passed me, coming from the Surrey side. When he met Flash
+George the two stopped and leant over the parapet, apparently
+interested in the river. Suddenly I heard Dorcas's signal. She
+began to sing the Italian song, "Santa Lucia."
+
+I had my instructions. I jostled up against the two men and begged
+their pardon.
+
+Flash George turned fiercely round. At the same moment I seized the
+old man and shouted for help. The Italians came hastily up. Several
+foot passengers rushed to the scene and inquired what was the matter.
+
+"He was going to commit suicide," I cried. "He was just going to
+jump into the water."
+
+The old man was struggling in my grasp. The crowd were keeping back
+Flash George. They believed the old man was struggling to get free
+to throw himself into the water.
+
+The Italian rushed up to me.
+
+"Ah, poor old man!" he said. "Don't let him get away!"
+
+He gave a violent tug to the grey beard. It came off in his hands.
+Then with an oath he seized the supposed would-be suicide by
+the throat.
+
+"You infernal villain!" he said.
+
+"Who is he?" asked Dorcas.
+
+"Who is he!" exclaimed Thomas Holmes, "why, the villain who brought
+me to ruin--_my precious partner--Charles Drayson!_"
+
+As the words escaped from the supposed Italian's lips, Charles
+Drayson gave a cry of terror, and leaping on to the parapet, plunged
+into the river.
+
+Flash George turned to run, but was stopped by a policeman who had
+just come up.
+
+Dorcas whispered something in the man's ear, and the officer,
+thrusting his hand in the rascal's pocket, drew out a bundle of
+bank-notes.
+
+A few minutes later the would-be suicide was brought ashore. He
+was still alive, but had injured himself terribly in his fall, and
+was taken to the hospital.
+
+Before he died he was induced to confess that he had taken advantage
+of the Paris fire to disappear. He had flung his watch down in order
+that it might be found as evidence of his death. He had, previously
+to visiting the Opéra Comique, received a letter at his hotel which
+told him pretty plainly the game was up, and he knew that at any
+moment a warrant might be issued against him. After reading his name
+amongst the victims, he lived as best he could abroad, but after
+some years, being in desperate straits, he determined to do a bold
+thing, return to London and endeavour to get into his house and
+obtain possession of the money which was lying unsuspected in the
+interior of the brown bear lamp. He had concealed it, well knowing
+that at any time the crash might come, and everything belonging to
+him be seized. The hiding-place he had selected was one which
+neither his creditors nor his relatives would suspect.
+
+On the night he entered the house, Flash George, whose acquaintance
+he had made in London, kept watch for him _while he let himself in
+with his latch-key,_ which he had carefully preserved.
+Mr. Hannaford's leaving the house was one of those pieces of good
+fortune which occasionally favour the wicked.
+
+With his dying breath Charles Drayson declared that he had no
+intention of killing his wife. He feared that, having heard a noise,
+she had come to see what it was, and might alarm the house in her
+terror, and as she turned to go out of the drawing-room he struck
+her, intending only to render her senseless until he had secured
+the booty.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Mr. Hannaford, completely recovered and in his right mind, was in
+due time released from Broadmoor. The letter from his mother to
+Dorcas Dene, thanking her for clearing her son's character and
+proving his innocence of the terrible crime for which he had been
+practically condemned, brought tears to my eyes as Dorcas read it
+aloud to Paul and myself. It was touching and beautiful to a degree.
+
+As she folded it up and put it away, I saw that Dorcas herself
+was deeply moved.
+
+"These are the _rewards_ of my profession," she said.
+"They compensate for everything."
+
+_THE END_
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+- Underscores have been used to enclose words and phrases which are,
+in the original text, italicized. As in: _Italics_
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77243 ***