e other straightly and the colonel hesitated.
How much does this man know? he wondered, and decided that he could do
no harm if he told all the truth.

"He had no relations in England," he said, "but he had a father who was
abroad."

"Ah, now we're getting at some facts," said the commissioner and drew a
slip of paper towards him. "What was the father's name?"

The colonel shook his head.

"That I can't tell you, sir," he said. "I should like to oblige you but
I have no more idea of what his name was than the man in the moon. I
believe he was in India, because letters from India used to come to
Gregory."

"Was Gregory his name?"

"His Christian name, I think," said the colonel after a moment's
thought. "He went wrong at college and was sent down. Then he went to
Paris and started to study art, and he got in trouble there, too. That's
as much as he ever told me."

"He had no brothers?" asked the commissioner.

"None," said the colonel emphatically. "I am certain of that, because he
once thanked God that he was the only child."

"I see," the commissioner nodded; "you have formed no theory as to why
he met his death or how?"

"No theory at all," said the colonel, but corrected himself. "Of course,
I've had ideas and opinions, but none of them has ever worked out. So
far as I know, he had no enemies, although he was a quick-tempered chap,
especially when he was recovering from a dose of 'coco,' and would
quarrel with his own grandmother."

"You've no idea why he was in London? Apparently he did not live here."

The colonel shrugged his massive shoulders.

"No, I couldn't tell you anything about that, sir," he said.

"He was not an American?" asked the commissioner again.

"I could swear to that," answered the colonel.

There was a pause and he waited.

"There's another matter." The commissioner spoke slowly. "I understand
that you are being bothered by a mysterious individual who calls himself
the Knave of Judgment."

"Jack o' Judgment," corrected the colonel with a contemptuous smile.
"Those sort of monkey tricks don't bother me, I can assure you."

"I have my theories about the Jack o' Judgment," said the commissioner.
"I have been looking up the circumstances of the murder, and I seem to
remember that on the body was found a playing card."

"That's right," said the colonel, who had remembered the fact himself
many times, "the Jack of Clubs."

"Do you know what that Jack of Clubs signified?" ask