be found seated in the chair,
placed behind the table, his elbows resting upon the blotting-pad.

At ten minutes past nine, exactly, the door opened, and a thick-set,
florid man, buttoned up in a fawn colored raincoat and wearing a bowler
hat of obsolete build, entered. He possessed a black mustache, a breezy,
bustling manner, and humorous blue eyes; furthermore, when he took
off his hat, he revealed the possession of a head of very bristly,
upstanding, black hair. This was Detective-Sergeant Sowerby, and the
same who was engaged in examining a newspaper in the study of Henry
Leroux when Dr. Cumberly and his daughter had paid their second visit to
that scene of an unhappy soul's dismissal.

"Well?" said Dunbar, glancing up at his subordinate, inquiringly.

"I have done all the cab depots," reported Sergeant Sowerby, "and a good
many of the private owners; but so far the man seen by Mr. Exel has not
turned up."

"The word will be passed round now, though," said Dunbar, "and we shall
probably have him here during the day."

"I hope so," said the other good-humoredly, seating himself upon one of
the two chairs ranged beside the wall. "If he doesn't show up."...

"Well?" jerked Dunbar--"if he doesn't?"

"It will look very black against Leroux."

Dunbar drummed upon the blotting-pad with the fingers of his left hand.

"It beats anything of the kind that has ever come my way," he confessed.
"You get pretty cautious at weighing people up, in this business; but I
certainly don't think--mind you, I go no further--but I certainly
don't think Mr. Henry Leroux would willingly kill a fly; yet there is
circumstantial evidence enough to hang him."

Sergeant Sowerby nodded, gazing speculatively at the floor.

"I wonder," he said, slowly, "why the girl--Miss Cumberly--hesitated
about telling us the woman's name?"

"I am not wondering about that at all," replied Dunbar, bluntly. "She
must meet thousands in the same way. The wonder to me is that she
remembered at all. I am open to bet half-a-crown that YOU couldn't
remember the name of every woman you happened to have pointed out to you
at an Arts Ball?"

"Maybe not," agreed Sowerby; "she's a smart girl, I'll allow. I see you
have last night's papers there?"

"I have," replied Dunbar; "and I'm wondering"...

"If there's any connection?"

"Well," continued the inspector, "it looks on the face of it as though
the news of her husband's death had something to do with Mrs.