Seemed rather to resent our anxiety. Helen
and I will be glad when we are all safely away from London. D.H."

The barrister pondered over this communication for a long time.

"I fear," he said at last, "that I came away from Middle Street a few
minutes too soon. To tell the truth, I was in an abject state of fear.
Next time I meet Mr. Frazer the Third I will be ready for him."

"Is he really so like the others that he might be mistaken for one of
them?"

"In a sense, yes. He has the same figure, general conformation, and
features. But in other respects he is utterly different. Have you ever
seen a great actor in the role of Mephistopheles?"

"I don't remember. My favourite villain was Barry Sullivan as Richard
III."

Brett laughed hysterically.

"Let me speak more plainly. You have, no doubt, a vague picture in your
mind of a certain gentleman of the highest descent who is popularly
credited with the possession of horns, hoofs, and a barbed tail?"

"I've heard of him."

"Very well. You will see someone very like him, minus the adornments
aforesaid, when you set eyes on the principal occupant of 37 Middle
Street."

Winter slowly assimilated this description. Then he inquired:

"Why did you say just now that you came away from Middle Street a few
minutes too soon?"

"Where did Mrs. Capella go when she left the hotel?"

"If she went to visit the man you met, then she is acting in collision
with her brother's murderer, and she knows it."

"That is a hard thing to say, Winter."

"It is a harder thing to credit, sir; but one cannot reject all evidence,
merely because It happens to be straightforward and not hypothetical."

"Winter, you are sneering at me."

"No; I am only trying to make you admit the tendency of facts discovered
by yourself. There is a period in all criminal investigation when
deductive reasoning becomes inductive."

"Now I have got you," cried Brett "I thought I recognised the source of
your new-born philosophy in the first postulate. The second convinces me.
You have been reading 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue.'"

"The book is in my pocket," admitted Winter.

"I recommend you to transfer it to your head. It should be issued
departmentally as a supplement to the Police Code. But let us waste no
more time. To-morrow we have much to accomplish."

"I am all attention."

"In the first place, Mrs. Capella is leaving London for the North. She
must not be regarded in our operations.