regard these stray bits of circumstantial evidence as in any
way conclusive of the extraordinary theory you have advanced, he's much
too able and cautious a man to yield to any such fool temptation as that.
But to let that matter pass for the present: why have you paid such close
attention to one end of your string, and quite ignored the other? Madame
Duclos' hasty flight and continued absence, in face of circumstances
which would lead a natural mother to break through every obstacle put
in the way of her return, offers a field of inquiry more promising, it
appears to me, than the one upon which you have expended your best
energies. You say nothing of her."

"I have nothing to say. I am glad to leave that particular line of
investigation to you, and more than glad if it has proved or is likely to
prove fruitful. Have you heard----"

"Read that."

He tossed a letter within the detective's grasp and leaned back while
Gryce laboriously perused it.

It was illy written, but well worth the pains he gave to it--as witness:

_To the Chief of Police:_

Dear Sir:--I am told that there is a reward out for a certain woman by
the name of Duclos. I do not know any such person, but there is a woman
who has been lodging in my house for the last two weeks who has acted
so strangely at odd times that I have become very suspicious of her,
and think it right for you to know what she did here one night.

It's about a fortnight since she came to my house in search of
lodgings. Had she been young, I would not have opened my doors to her,
decent as she was in her dress and ways; for she was a foreign woman
and I don't like foreigners. But being middle-aged and ready with her
money in advance, I not only allowed her to come in but gave her my
very best room. This is not saying much, because the elevated road runs
by my door, darkening my whole front, besides making an awful clatter.
But she did not seem to mind this, and I took little notice of her,
till one of the other lodgers--a woman with a busy tongue--began to ask
why this strange woman, who was so very dark and plain, went out only
at night? Did she sew or write for a living? If not, what did she do
with herself all day?

As the last was a question I could easily answer, I said that she spent
most of her time in reading the newspapers; and this was true, because
she always came in with her arms full of them. But there I stopped, as
I