he was writing
letters and Brendon saw the auburn girl of the sunset.

CHAPTER II

THE PROBLEM STATED

The girl had evidently dressed that morning without thought or
care--perhaps unconsciously. Her wonderful hair was lifted and wound
carelessly upon her head; her beauty had been dimmed by tears. She
was, however, quite controlled and showed little emotion at their
meeting; but she looked very weary and every inflection of her
pleasant, clear voice revealed it. She spoke as one who had suffered
much and laboured under great loss of vitality. He found this to be
indeed the case, for it seemed that she had lost half herself.

As he entered she rose and saw in his face an astonishment which
seemed not much to surprise her, for she was used to admiration and
knew that her beauty startled men.

Brendon, though he felt his heart beat quicklier at his discovery,
soon had himself in hand. He spoke with tact and sympathy, feeling
himself already committed to serve her with all his wits and
strength. Only a fleeting regret shot through his mind that the case
in all probability would not prove such as to reveal his own strange
powers. He combined the regulation methods of criminal research with
the more modern deductive system, and his success, as he always
pointed out, was reached by the double method. Already he longed to
distinguish himself before this woman.

"Mrs. Pendean," he said, "I am very glad that you learned I was in
Princetown and it will be a privilege to serve you if I can. The
worst may not have happened, though from what I have heard, there is
every reason to fear it; but, believe me, I will do my best on your
account. I have communicated with headquarters and, being free at
this moment, can devote myself wholly to the problem."

"Perhaps it was selfish to ask you in your holidays," she said.
"But, somehow, I felt--"

"Think nothing whatever of that. I hope that what lies before us may
not take very long. And now I will listen to you. There is no need
to tell me anything about what has happened at Foggintor. I shall
hear all about that later in the day. You will do well now to let me
know everything bearing upon it that went before this sad affair;
and if you can throw the least light of a nature to guide me and
help my inquiry, so much the better."

"I can throw no light at all," she said. "It has come like a
thunderbolt and I still find my mind refusing to accept the story
that they have bro