er of his hand, "is that Gregory Farrington is
alive. The man whose body was picked up in the Thames is undoubtedly the
gentleman who was shot in the raid upon the Custom House. The inference
is, that Gregory was the second party in the raid, and that the attempt
to secure the trunk of the admirable Dr. Goldworthy was carefully
conceived. The box apparently contained a diary which gave away Gregory
to one who had it in her power to do him an immense amount of harm."

"You refer to Lady Constance Dex?" asked the chief, interestedly.

T. B. nodded.

"That is the lady," he said. "Evidently Farrington has played it pretty
low down upon her; was responsible for the death of her lover, and,
moreover, for a great deal of her unhappiness. Farrington was the man
who told George Doughton about some scandal of her youth, and Doughton,
that high-spirited man, went straight off to Africa without
communicating with the lady or discovering how far she was guilty in the
matter. The documents in the box would, I surmise, prove this to Lady
Dex's satisfaction, and Farrington, who was well informed through his
agents on the Coast, would have every reason for preventing these
letters getting into the hands of a woman who would be remorseless in
her vengeance."

"Is that fact established?" asked the chief.

"Pretty well," said T. B.

He took some papers out of his pocket and laid them on the desk before
him.

"I have now got a copy of the letter which the dead lover wrote to Lady
Constance. I need not say," he said lightly, "how I obtained possession
of this, but we in our department do not hesitate to adopt the most
drastic methods----"

"I know all about that," said the chief, with a little smile; "there was
burglary at the rectory two days ago, and I presume your interesting
burglar was your own Private Sikes."

"Exactly," said T. B. cheerfully. "Fact number two," he went on, "is
that Gregory Farrington and the international blackmailer named Montague
Fallock are one and the same person."

The chief looked up.

"You do not mean that?"

"I do indeed," said T. B. "That interesting paragraph in the will of the
late Mr. Farrington confirms this view. The will was especially prepared
to put me off the scent. Letters which have been received by eminent
personages signed 'Montague Fallock' and demanding, as usual, money with
threats of exposure have recently been received and confirm this
theory."

"Where is Montague Fallock n