ces.

"It is not accepted," he said cheerfully; "you did your best, and you're
no more responsible than I am. If you resign, I ought to resign, and so
ought every officer who has been on this game. A few years ago I took
exactly the same step--offered my resignation over a purely private and
personal matter, and it was not accepted. I have been glad since, and so
will you be. Go on with your work and give Boundary a rest for awhile."

Stafford was looking down at him abstractedly.

"Do you think we shall ever catch the fellow, sir?"

Sir Stanley smiled.

"Frankly, I don't," he admitted. "As I said before, the only danger I
see to Boundary is this mysterious individual who apparently crops up
now and again in his daily life, and who, I suspect, was the person who
sent you the Spillsbury letter--the Jack o' Judgment, doesn't he call
himself? Do you know what I think?" he asked quietly. "I think that if
you found the 'Jack,' if you ran him to earth, stripped him of his
mystic guise, you would discover somebody who has a greater grudge
against Boundary than the police."

Stafford smiled.

"We can't run about after phantoms, sir," he said, with a touch of
asperity in his voice.

The chief looked at him curiously.

"I hear you do quite a lot of running about," he said carelessly, as he
began to arrange the papers on his table. "By the way, how is Miss
White?"

Stafford flushed.

"She was very well when I saw her last night," he said stiffly; "she is
leaving the stage."

"And her father?"

Stafford was silent for a second.

"He left his home a week before the case came into court and has not
been seen since," he said.

The chief nodded.

"Whilst White is away and until he turns up I should keep a watchful eye
on his daughter," he said.

"What do you mean, sir?" asked Stafford.

"I'm just making a suggestion," said the other. "Think it over."

Stafford thought it over on his way to meet the girl, who was waiting
for him on a sunny seat in Temple Gardens, for the day was fine and even
warm, and, two hours before luncheon, the place was comparatively empty
of people.

She saw the trouble in his face and rose to meet him, and for a moment
forgot her own distress of mind, her doubts and fears. Evidently she
knew the reason for his attendance at Scotland Yard, and something of
the interview which he had had.

"I offered my resignation," he replied, in answer to her unspoken
question, "and Sir Stanley re