me, unaccustomed as I
was to them. Edwards, too, remained in silent indecision.

"We'll send them along to Inspector Tirrell in the Finger-print
Department," my friend said at last. "He's an expert, and will tell at a
glance if any marks are the same as ours."

Then he rang a bell, and a constable, at his instructions, carried all
the prints to the department in question.

"Well, Mr. Royle," exclaimed the inspector when the door had closed; "how
did you obtain those prints?"

I was ready for his question, and a lie was at once glibly upon my lips.

"Sir Digby, on the night of his disappearance, returned to me a small
steel despatch box which he had borrowed some weeks before; therefore,
after the affair, I examined it for finger-prints, with the result I have
shown you," I said.

"Ah! but whatever prints were upon it were there before the entrance of
the victim to your friend's rooms," he exclaimed. "He gave it to you when
you bade him good-night, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"And you carried the box home with you?"

"Yes," I repeated; in fear nevertheless, that my lie might in some way
incriminate me. Yet how could I tell him of my suspicion of Phrida. That
secret was mine--and mine alone, and, if necessary, I would carry it with
me to the grave.

Edwards was again silent for some minutes.

"No, Mr. Royle, I can't see that your evidence helps us in the least. If
there should be the same prints on your despatch box as we found upon the
specimen-table, then what do they prove?--why, nothing. If the box had
been in the room at the time of the tragedy, then it might have given us
an important clue, because such an object would probably be touched by
any malefactor or assassin. But----"

"Ah!" I cried, interrupting. "Then you do not suspect Sir Digby, after
all--eh?"

"Pardon me, Mr. Royle, but I did not say that I held no suspicion," was
his quiet answer. "Yet, if you wish to know the actual truth, I, at
present, am without suspicion of anyone--except of that second woman, the
mysterious woman whose finger-prints we have, and who was apparently in
the room at the same time as the unidentified victim."

"You suspect her, then?" I asked breathlessly.

"Not without further proof," he replied, with a calm, irritating smile.
"I never suspect unless I have good grounds for doing so. At present we
have three clear finger-prints of a woman whom nobody saw enter or leave,
just as nobody saw the victim enter. Your friend