u now you're not. That's the work of a
crazy woman, or it's a hoax. You amateur detectives----"

Ford was already seated at the table, scribbling a copy of the message,
and making marginal notes.

"Who brought the FIRST paper?" he interrupted.

"A hansom-cab driver."

"What became of HIM?" snapped the amateur detective.

The Secretary looked inquiringly at James. "He drove away," said James.

"He drove away, did he?"' roared Ford. "And that was a week ago! Ye
gods! What about Dalesville, Kentucky? Did you cable any one there?"

The dignity of the diplomat was becoming ruffled.

"We did not!" he answered. "If it wasn't true that her uncle was at that
hotel, it was probably equally untrue that she had friends in America."

"But," retorted his friend, "you didn't forget to cable the State
Department that you all went in your evening clothes to bow to the new
King? You didn't neglect to cable that, did you?"

"The State Department," returned the Secretary, with withering reproof,
"does not expect us to crawl over the roofs of houses and spy down
chimneys to see if by any chance an American citizen is being murdered."

"Well," exclaimed Ford, leaping to his feet and placing his notes in
his pocket, "fortunately, my paper expects me to do just that, and if it
didn't, I'd do it anyway. And that is exactly what I am going to do now!
Don't tell the others in the Embassy, and, for Heaven's sake, don't tell
the police. Jimmy, get me a taxi. And you," he commanded, pointing at
the one who had brought the note, "are coming with me to Sowell Street,
to show me where you picked up that paper."

On the way to Sowell Street Ford stopped at a newspaper agency, and
paid for the insertion that afternoon of the same advertisement in three
newspapers. It read: "If hansom-cab driver who last week carried note,
found in street, to American Embassy will mail his address to X. X. X.,
care of GLOBE, he will be rewarded."

From the nearest post-office he sent to his paper the following cable:
"Query our local correspondent, Dalesville, Kentucky, concerning Dosia
Pearsall Dale. Is she of sound mind, is she heiress. Who controls
her money, what her business relations with her uncle Charles Ralph
Pearsall, what her present address. If any questions, say inquiries come
from solicitors of Englishman who wants to marry her. Rush answer."

Sowell Street is a dark, dirty little thoroughfare, running for only
one block, parallel to Harley St