ce and led me as
unostentatiously as possible into a small hall, at the end of which I
saw a door with the aforesaid number on it.

"If you will take a seat inside," said he, "I will send you whatever you
may desire for your comfort."

"I think you know what that is," I rejoined, at which he nodded again
and left me, closing the door carefully behind him as he went.

The few minutes which elapsed before my quiet was disturbed were spent
by me in thinking. There were many little questions to settle in my own
mind, for which a spell of uninterrupted contemplation was necessary.
One of these was whether, in the event of finding the police amenable, I
should reveal or hide from these children of my old friend, the fact
that it was through my instrumentality that their nefarious secret had
been discovered. I wished--nay, I hoped--that the affair might be so
concluded, but the possibility of doing so seemed so problematical,
especially since Mr. Gryce was not on hand to direct matters, that I
spent very little time on the subject, deep and important as it was to
all concerned.

What most occupied me was the necessity of telling my story in such a
way as to exonerate the girls as much as possible. They were mistaken in
their devotion and most unhappy in the exercise of it, but they were not
innately wicked and should not be made to appear so. Perhaps the one
thing for which I should yet have the best cause to congratulate myself,
would be the opportunity I had gained of giving to their connection with
this affair its true and proper coloring.

I was still dwelling on this thought when there came a knock at my door
which advised me that the visitor I expected had arrived. To open and
admit him was the work of a moment, but it took more than a moment for
me to overcome my surprise at seeing in my visitor no lesser person than
Mr. Gryce himself, who in our parting interview had assured me he was
too old and too feeble for further detective work and must therefore
delegate it to me.

"Ah!" I ejaculated slowly. "It is you, is it? Well, I am not surprised."
(I shouldn't have been.) "When you say you are old, you mean old enough
to pull the wool over other people's eyes, and when you say you are
lame, you mean that you only halt long enough to let others get far
enough ahead for them not to see how fast you hobble up behind them. But
do not think I am not happy to see you. I am, Mr. Gryce, for I have
discovered the secret of L