with Mr. Richard Vanderpole?"

"I have never heard them speak of one another," Penelope answered. "I
should think it very unlikely."

"You have no knowledge of any common pursuit or interest in life
which the two men may have shared?" the Inspector asked. "A hobby, for
instance,--a collection of postage stamps, china, any common aim of any
sort?"

She shook her head.

"I knew little of Mr. Fynes' tastes. Dicky--I mean Mr. Vanderpole--had
none at all except an enthusiasm for his profession and a love of polo."

"His profession," the Inspector repeated. "Mr. Vanderpole was attached
to the American Embassy, was he not?"

"I believe so," Penelope answered.

"Mr. Hamilton Fynes," the Inspector continued, "might almost have been
said to have followed the same occupation."

"Surely not!" Penelope objected. "I always understood that Mr. Fynes was
employed in a Government office at Washington,--something to do with the
Customs, I thought, or forest duties."

Mr. Jacks nodded thoughtfully.

"I am not aware, as yet," he said, "of the precise nature of Mr. Fynes'
occupation. I only knew that it was, in some shape or form, Government
work."

"You know as much about it," she answered, "as I do."

"We have sent," the Inspector continued smoothly, "a special man out
to Washington to make all inquiries that are possible on the spot, and
incidentally, to go through the effects of the deceased, with a view
to tracing any complications in which he may have been involved in this
country."

Penelope opened her lips, but closed them again.

"I am not, however," the Inspector continued, "very sanguine of success.
In the case of Mr. Vanderpole, for instance, there could have been
nothing of the sort. He was too young, altogether too much of a boy,
to have had enemies so bitterly disposed towards him. There is another
explanation somewhere, I feel convinced, at the root of the matter."

"You do not believe, then," asked Penelope, "that robbery was really the
motive?"

"Not ordinary robbery," Mr. Jacks answered. "A man who was capable of
these two crimes is capable of easier and greater things. I mean,"
he explained, "that he could have attempted enterprises of a far more
remunerative character, with a prospect of complete success."

"Will you forgive me," she said, "if I ask you to go on with your
questions, providing you have any more to ask me? Notwithstanding the
excellence of your disguise," she remarked with a faint c