e to do
me some service in a crush of people, and I enjoyed the
privilege of his acquaintance as the result. I would not
have inflicted myself upon another generation, but he took
an interest in conversing with one who knew his own language.
He was also intelligent--for a military man. Needless to
say, he made no allusion to the tragedy at Chadlands, but
when he spoke of espionage in war and kindred matters, I
found him familiar with the details concerning the death of
the great English detective, Peter Hardcastle. I then asked
him, as being myself deeply interested in the matter, whether
it would be possible to get further and fuller details of the
story of 'the Grey Room,' whereupon he told me, to my
amazement, that he had been at Chadlands when your lamented
son-in-law, Captain Thomas May, passed out of life. I then
recollected Colonel Vane's name, among others mentioned in
the 'Times,' as at Chadlands when the disaster occurred.

"Finding that my curiosity was not idle, Colonel Vane accepted
an invitation to dinner, and I enjoyed the pleasure of
entertaining him and learning many personal and intimate
particulars of the event. These were imparted in confidence,
and he knew that I should not abuse his trust. Indeed, I had
already told him that it was my determination to communicate
with you upon the strength of his narrative.

"It seems improbable that anything I can say will bear upon
the case, and I may presently find that I lack the means to
serve you, or throw light where all is so profoundly buried
in darkness. Yet I am not sure. Small things will often
lead to greater, and though the past is unhappily beyond
recall, since our Maker Himself cannot undo the work of
yesterday, or obliterate events embalmed in vanished time,
yet there is always the future; and if we could but read
the past aright, which we never can, then the future would
prove less of a painful riddle than mankind generally
finds it.

"If, then, I can help you to read the past, I may at least
modify your anxieties in the future; and should I, by a
remote chance, be right in my suspicions, it is quite
imperative that I place myself at your service for the
sake of mankind. In a word, a great crime has been
committed, and the situation is possibly such that further
capital cri