illing he should
see that I could be affected by anything he could say.

"The Van Burnams are my next-door neighbors," I remarked sweetly. "I had
the best of excuses for the interest I took in their affairs."

"So you had," he acquiesced. "I am glad to be reminded of the fact. I
wonder I was able to forget it."

Angry now to the point of not being able to hide it, I turned upon him
with firm determination.

"Let us talk of something else," I said.

But he was equal to the occasion. Drawing a folded paper from his
pocket, he opened it out before my eyes, observing quite naturally:
"That is a happy thought. Let us look over this sketch you were sharp
enough to ask for a few moments ago. It shows the streets of the village
and the places where each of the persons I have mentioned was last seen.
Is not that what you wanted?"

I know that I should have drawn back with a frown, that I never should
have allowed myself the satisfaction of casting so much as a glance
toward the paper, but the human nature which links me to my kind was too
much for me, and with an involuntary "Exactly!" I leaned over it with an
eagerness I strove hard, even at that exciting moment, to keep within
the bounds I thought proper to my position as a non-professional,
interested in the matter from curiosity alone.

This is what I saw:

[Illustration]

"Mr. Gryce," said I, after a few minutes' close contemplation of this
diagram, "I do not suppose you want any opinion from me."

"Madam," he retorted, "it is all you have left me free to ask for."

Receiving this as a permission to speak, I put my finger on the road
marked with a cross.

"Then," said I, "so far as I can gather from this drawing, all the
disappearances seem to have taken place in or about this especial road."

"You are as correct as usual," he returned. "What you have said is so
true, that the people of the vicinity have already given to this winding
way a special cognomen of its own. For two years now it has been called
Lost Man's Lane."

"Indeed!" I cried. "They have got the matter down as close as that, and
yet have not solved its mystery? How long is this road?"

"A half mile or so."

I must have looked my disgust, for his hands opened deprecatingly.

"The ground has undergone a thorough search," said he. "Not a square
foot in those woods you see on either side of the road, but has been
carefully examined."

"And the houses? I see there are three houses on this ro