. By Jove, Hunter is a
good French scholar. It was on that account he got on the track of a
gang of Chicago anarchists."

A curious stillness fell on the gathering. It was as though a spirit
of evil had suddenly made its presence felt; even the electric lamps
seemed to have grown dimmer.

"Describe Hunter."

Steingall's voice rang out incisively; the reporter took off his
spectacles, and began to burnish them, for his face was glistening with
perspiration.

"He is about five feet ten inches in height, and weighs somewhere in
the neighborhood of 150 pounds. He is straight and well-built, and his
face is finely molded, with big, luminous eyes, deeply recessed,
and----"

"Has he a white scar across the left eyebrow?"

"Yes."

For some reason, the journalist carried his description of Hunter's
personal appearance no farther. It was unnecessary. Before Steingall
uttered another word everyone in the room had a foreboding that they
were on the threshold of a discovery which lifted this tragedy into a
prominence far beyond aught they had yet dreamed of.

Except for that momentary touch of amazement in the detective's tone
they could gather nothing from his manner. But his invariable habit
was to speak to the point, and without the least suggestion of
ambiguity in his words.

"I am very much afraid, gentlemen, that the murdered man is Mr. Henry
B. Hunter," he said. "I must trouble you to come with me, and place
the question of identity beyond doubt. I hope that you, Mr. and Mrs.
Curtis, and you, Mr. Devar, will make it convenient to await my return.
There are matters on which you can give me valuable information."

In a few seconds the three found themselves alone. The clerk had
business to attend to, but he courteously invited them to remain in the
office until the detective came back.

"Did you ever hear such nonsense as this talk about Curtis being mixed
up in an abduction?" began Devar, eager to dispossess his friend's
relatives of any false impressions they might have formed. "Why, he
didn't know a soul in the States--except yourselves," he added
tactfully.

The uncle, who had been polishing his domed forehead with a large
handkerchief at intervals during the past quarter of an hour, cleared
his throat as a preliminary to some important announcement, but his
better half had only kept silent because of a real fear that her nephew
had been engaged in the commission of serious crime from the instant