s, for a
moment, troubled. He had prepared himself with the chloroform, but must
use his own handkerchief, and that is marked."

"Oh! a burglar with marked linen!"

"Even so. It's nothing unusual. You reason like a reader of too many
novels. Burglars are not all escaped convicts, blear eyed and hideous;
nor do they all go about in fustian. It's the burglar in broadcloth
that makes us the trouble. Fustian starves, and steals, and is soon
found out; runs away with its booty, as a dog runs away with its bone.
Broadcloth is wiser, just as a skilled workman is wiser than a hod
carrier. It brings to its service tact, study,--who knows what, of
scientific skill? It looks before it leaps; it plans before it executes;
and it covers up all traces of its progress, or else leaves a network of
false clues and misleading evidences. Bah! if we had only fustian to
deal with, it would not be worth while to be a detective."

"Granted," says the doctor, drumming impatiently upon the table, with
the fingers of his strong, white, right hand. "We have to deal with a
broadcloth burglar, who marks his linen, and, perhaps, perfumes it.
_Was_ it perfumed? I forgot."

"It was not perfumed. I wish it had been. Yes, ours is a broadcloth
burglar. When he approached Miss Wardour's bedside, he produced from a
convenient pocket, his stupefying drug; and then he looked about for
something with which to apply it, and at the same time, no doubt, he
berates himself for omitting to provide himself with a plain, small
napkin, or piece of linen. There was nothing at hand that was not too
large for his purpose, and too coarse, for he understood the delicacy of
his undertaking. So, he produced his pocket handkerchief, which, as I
said before, was marked; he tears off the half bearing the name, but, in
his haste, does not observe that he has left evidence that the name was
there. He then saturated the linen, and set the bottle upon the night
stand, leaving his two hands free to apply his drug with utmost care.
Then he pauses for a moment, to note the effect of his application, or
to gaze upon the fair sleeper. And then comes a sound from the outer
room, an impatient call, the click of steel implements, no matter
what,--he snatches up the dark lantern and, forgetting the bottle, goes
out to his comrade."

"You believe there were two?"

"Yes; there were two. These affairs are seldom operated by one man."

"You said this evening that they had blundered. It