nd
ceased to interfere with the affairs of other people. Good-by, Isobel.
Anything I can do, you know you may command. Good-by, Coverly. I am
deeply sorry about this business."

He barely touched my extended hand, but instantly turned and walked to
the bay window. Descending to the street, I had immediate confirmation
of Coverly's statement that his movements were watched.

In the porch below a man stood talking to the hall-porter. As I
appeared he immediately averted his face and began to light a
cigarette. Nevertheless I had had time to recognize him as the man who
had brought Gatton news of Marie's detention.

It was in a truly perturbed frame of mind that I proceeded on my way
to the _Planet_ offices. I would have sacrificed much to have been
afforded means to comfort Isobel; a furious anger towards the man who
thus deliberately had brought doubt and unhappiness upon her had taken
up permanent quarters in my mind. I counted Coverly's declination to
clear himself little better than the attitude of a cad.

I read religiously through a pile of cuttings bearing upon the case,
and found the unmistakable trend of opinion to be directed towards
Coverly as the culprit. The use made of Isobel's name enraged me to
boiling point and I presently took up the entire bundle of cuttings
and crammed them into a waste-paper basket. I was engaged in stamping
them down with my foot when I was called to the telephone.

Inspector Gatton was speaking from New Scotland Yard; and his voice
was very grave.

"Can you possibly come along at once?" he asked. "There is a new
development; a most unpleasant one."

He would say no more over the telephone. Therefore I hurried out to
where Coates was waiting, and in ten minutes found myself in one of
those bare, comfortless apartments which characterize the headquarters
of the Metropolitan Police Force.

With his hat off Gatton looked more like a seaman than ever, for he
had short, crisply curly hair and that kind of bull-dog line of
cranium which one associates with members of the senior service. Upon
a chair set in a recess formed by one of the lofty windows a leather
grip rested. It was wet and stained, and had palpably been recovered
but recently from the water. Seeing my glance straying towards this
object at the moment of my entrance, the Inspector nodded.

"Yes," said he, "it has just come in."

"What is it?"

"Well," replied Gatton, sitting upon a corner of the table and folding