ve been--was aimed, I believe, at me, and I should
like to ascertain its nature. Would you do me the favour of permitting
me to look for it?"

The caretaker was evidently inclined to refuse this request, for he
glanced suspiciously from my companion to me once or twice before
replying, but, at length, he turned towards the open door and gruffly
invited us to enter.

A paraffin lamp was on the floor in a recess of the hall, and this our
conductor took up when he had elosed the street door.

"This is the room," he said, turning the key and thrusting the door
open; "the library they call it, but it's the front parlour in plain
English." He entered and, holding the lamp above his head, stared
balefully at the broken window.

Thorndyke glanced quickly along the floor in the direction that the
missile would have taken, and then said--

"Do you see any mark on the wall there?"

As he spoke, he indicated the wall opposite the window, which obviously
could not have been struck by a projectile entering with such extreme
obliquity; and I was about to point out this fact when I fortunately
remembered the great virtue of silence.

Our friend approached the wall, still holding up the lamp, and
scrutinised the surface with close attention; and while he was thus
engaged, I observed Thorndyke stoop quickly and pick up something, which
he deposited carefully, and without remark, in his waistcoat pocket.

"I don't see no bruise anywhere," said the caretaker, sweeping his hand
over the wall.

"Perhaps the thing struck this wall," suggested Thorndyke, pointing to
the one that was actually in the line of fire. "Yes, of course," he
added, "it would be this one--the shot came from Henry Street."

The caretaker crossed the room and threw the light of his lamp on the
wall thus indicated.

"Ah! here we are!" he exclaimed, with gloomy satisfaction, pointing to a
small dent in which the wall-paper was turned back and the plaster
exposed; "looks almost like a bullet mark, but you say you didn't hear
no report."

"No," said Thorndyke, "there was no report; it must have been a
catapult."

The caretaker set the lamp down on the floor and proceeded to grope
about for the projectile, in which operation we both assisted; and I
could not suppress a faint smile as I noted the earnestness with which
Thorndyke peered about the floor in search of the missile that was
quietly reposing in his waistcoat pocket.

We were deep in our investigatio