of all aliens. Great emphasis was laid upon the importance
of tracing the present whereabouts of John Dene of Toronto, and anyone
who had seen a man at all answering to his description, was called upon
to communicate with Scotland Yard.

The afternoon papers contained practically the same information, but
elaborated and adorned. Several hinted at the fact that John Dene had
come to England with a new invention of great importance, and that he
had disappeared just on the eve of the fruition of his schemes, with
the result that everything was at a stand-still. In support of this
theory the writers pointed to the amount of the reward. Ten thousand
pounds would not have been offered, they argued, unless there were good
reasons for it. One paper went so far as to suggest that the
Government itself was offering the reward, although in its next issue
it apologised for and contradicted the statement--this was a little
stroke of Malcolm Sage's.

Dorothy was besieged by interviewers, until at last she was forced to
refrain from answering the succession of knocks at the outer door. Her
head was in a whirl.

The prevailing topic of conversation was the disappearance of John
Dene. Everybody was asking why such a reward had been offered. Shoals
of letters descended upon Scotland Yard. Hundreds of callers lined up
in a queue, waiting their turn to be interviewed. Telegrams rained in
from the provinces. Apparently John Dene had been seen in places as
far distant as St. Andrews and Bournemouth, Aberystwyth and King's
Lynn. He had been observed in conversation with men, women and
children, some of harmless, some of sinister appearance. He had been
seen in trains, 'buses, trams and cars. He had been seen perturbed and
calm, hastening and loitering, in uniform and in mufti.

Scotland Yard was almost out of its mind, and the officer in charge of
the John Dene investigation rang through to Malcolm Sage, demanding
what the funny peter he was to do with the enormous correspondence, and
the bewildering queue that already stretched along the Embankment
halfway to Charing Cross railway-bridge.

"Burn the telegrams and letters and tell the queue to write," was
Sage's laconic response, as he put up the receiver, whereat the officer
had sworn heavily into the mouth-piece of the instrument.

The Chief Commissioner was particularly annoyed because all his own
correspondence had been engulphed in the epistolary flood, and he was
e