attended to these rites and
his banker acted the part of chief mourner. As his body was carried out
of the house, a half-dozen detectives mingled with the crowd blocking
the thoroughfare in front, but nothing came of their surveillance here
or at the cemetery to which the remains were speedily carried. The
problem which had been presented to the police had to be worked out from
such material as had already come to hand; and, in forcible recognition
of this fact, Mr. Gryce excused himself one evening at Headquarters and
proceeded quite alone and on foot to the dark and apparently closed
house in which the tragedy had occurred.

He entered with a key, and once inside, proceeded to light up the whole
house. This done, he took a look at the study, saw that the cross had
been replaced on the wall, the bird-cage rehung on its hook under the
ceiling, and everything put in its wonted order, with the exception of
the broken casings, which still yawned in a state of disrepair on either
side of the doorway leading into the study. The steel plate had been
shoved back into the place prepared for it by Mr. Adams, but the
glimpses still to be seen of its blue surface through the hole made in
the wall of the antechamber formed anything but an attractive feature
in the scene, and Mr. Gryce, with something of the instinct and much of
the deftness of a housewife, proceeded to pull up a couple of rugs from
the parlor floor and string them over these openings. Then he consulted
his watch, and finding that it was within an hour of nine o'clock, took
up his stand behind the curtains of the parlor window. Soon, for the
person expected was as prompt as himself, he saw a carriage stop and a
lady alight, and he hastened to the front door to receive her. It was
Miss Butterworth.

"Madam, your punctuality is equal to my own," said he. "Have you ordered
your coachman to drive away?"

"Only as far as the corner," she returned, as she followed him down the
hall. "There he will await the call of your whistle."

"Nothing could be better. Are you afraid to remain for a moment alone,
while I watch from the window the arrival of the other persons we
expect? At present there is no one in the house but ourselves."

"If I was subject to fear in a matter of this kind, I should not be here
at all. Besides, the house is very cheerfully lighted. I see you have
chosen a crimson light for illuminating the study."

"Because a crimson light was burning when Mr