'you
mean?"

"Well, there's a letter--it'll be in this museum some day--which
came just before that last double event. 'Twas signed 'The Avenger,'
in just the same printed characters as on that bit of paper he always
leaves behind him. Mind you, it don't follow that it actually was The
Avenger what sent that letter here, but it looks uncommonly like it,
and I know that the Boss attaches quite a lot of importance to it."

"And where was it posted?" asked Bunting. "That might be a bit of a
clue, you know."

"Oh, no," said the other. "They always goes a very long way to
post anything--criminals do. It stands to reason they would. But
this particular one was put in the Edgware Road Post Office."

"What? Close to us?" said Bunting. "Goodness! dreadful!"

"Any of us might knock up against him any minute. I don't suppose
The Avenger's in any way peculiar-looking--in fact we know he ain't."

"Then you think that woman as says she saw him did see him?" asked
Bunting hesitatingly.

"Our description was made up from what she said," answered the other
cautiously. "But, there, you can't tell! In a case like that it's
groping--groping in the dark all the time--and it's just a lucky
accident if it comes out right in the end. Of course, it's upsetting
us all very much here. You can't wonder at that!"

"No, indeed," said Bunting quickly. "I give you my word, I've hardly
thought of anything else for the last month."

Daisy had disappeared, and when her father joined her in the passage
she was listening, with downcast eyes, to what Joe Chandler was
saying.

He was telling her about his real home, of the place where his mother
lived, at Richmond--that it was a nice little house, close to the
park. He was asking her whether she could manage to come out there
one afternoon, explaining that his mother would give them tea, and
how nice it would be.

"I don't see why Ellen shouldn't let me," the girl said rebelliously.
"But she's that old-fashioned and pernickety is Ellen--a regular
old maid! And, you see, Mr. Chandler, when I'm staying with them,
father don't like for me to do anything that Ellen don't approve of.
But she's got quite fond of you, so perhaps if you ask her--?"
She looked at him, and he nodded sagely.

"Don't you be afraid," he said confidently. "I'll get round Mrs.
Bunting. But, Miss Daisy"--he grew very red--"I'd just like to
ask you a question--no offence meant--"

"Yes?" said Daisy a little breathlessly. "T