proved,
at least, her lover's infidelity. She stood there at her door, waiting.
When Austen Abbott comes out, she shoots, throws the revolver at
him, closes her door, and goes off into a faint. Perhaps she hears
footsteps--a key in the door. At any rate, Captain Sotherst arrives a
few minutes later. He finds, half in the hall, half on the threshold of
the sitting room, Austen Abbott dead, and Miss Shaw's revolver by the
side of him. If he had been a wise young man, he would have aroused the
household. Why he did not do so, we can perhaps guess. He put two and
two together a little too quickly. It is certain that he believed that
the dead man had been shot by his fiancee. His first thought was to get
rid of the revolver. At any rate, he walked down to the street with it
in his hand, and was promptly arrested by the policeman who had heard
the shot. Naturally he refused to plead, because he believed that
Miss Shaw had killed the man, probably in self-defence. She, at first,
believed her lover guilty, and when afterwards Fluffy Dean confessed,
she, with feminine lack of common sense, was trying to get the girl out
of the country before telling the truth. A visit of hers to the office
of the steamship company gave me the clue I required."

Lady Mary grasped both his hands.

"And Scotland Yard," she exclaimed, with a withering glance at Dory,
"have done their best to hang my brother!"

Peter Ruff raised his eyebrows.

"Dear Lady Mary," he said, "remember that it is the business of Scotland
Yard to find a man guilty. It is mine, when I am employed for that
purpose, to find him innocent. You must not be too hard upon my friend
Mr. Dory. He and I seem to come up against each other a little too
often, as it is."

"A little too often!" John Dory repeated, softly. "But one cannot tell.
Don't believe, Lady Mary," he added, "that we ever want to kill an
innocent man."

"It is your profession, though," she answered, "to find criminals--and
his," she added, touching Peter Ruff on the shoulder, "to look for the
truth."

Peter Ruff bowed low--the compliment pleased him.

CHAPTER V. DELILAH FROM STREATHAM

It was a favourite theory with Peter Ruff that the morning papers
received very insufficient consideration from the majority of the
British public. A glance at the headlines and a few of the spiciest
paragraphs, a vague look at the leading article, and the sheets were
thrown away to make room for more interesting lite