reet, and am thankful to say that in consequence of my
father's business acumen, my balance at my bankers was increasing
annually. At the works at Greenwich nearly two thousand hands were
employed, and it had always been the firm's proud boast that they
laboured under the most healthy conditions possible to secure in the
manufacture of chemicals.

My father, upon his deathbed, had held my hand and expressed to me his
profoundest satisfaction at my engagement with the daughter of his
partner, and almost with his last breath had pronounced a blessing upon
our union.

Yes, I loved Phrida--loved her with all my heart and all my soul. She was
mine--mine for ever.

Yet, as I sat at that little table in the white-enamelled restaurant
gazing at her across the bowl of tulips, I felt a strange, a very curious
misgiving, an extraordinary misty suspicion, for which I could not in the
least account.

I experienced a strange intuition of doubt and vague uncertainty.

The facts we had just been discussing were, to say the least, amazing.

Only the Metropolitan Police and myself were aware of the astounding
discovery which had been made that morning--a discovery of which the
ever-vigilant London evening newspapers had as yet no inkling.

The affair was being carefully hushed up. In certain quarters--high
official quarters, I believe--a flutter of excitement had been caused at
noon, when it had become known that a mystery had occurred, one which at
the outset New Scotland Yard had acknowledged itself utterly without a
clue.

About the affair there was nothing usual, nothing commonplace. The murder
mysteries of London always form exciting reading, for it is surely the
easiest work of the practised journalist to put forward from day to day
fresh clues and exciting propositions.

The present case, however, was an entirely fresh and unheard-of mystery,
one such as London had never before known.

In the whole annals of Scotland Yard no case presenting such unusual
features had previously been reported.

"Have you no theory as to what really occurred?" Phrida asked slowly,
after a very long and pensive silence.

"None whatever, dear," I replied.

What theory could I form? Aye, what indeed?

In order that the exact truth should be made entirely plain to the reader
and the mystery viewed in all its phases, it will be best for me to
briefly record the main facts prior to entering upon any detail.

The following were the circum