ut Stuart concluded that this sudden activity was directly due, not to the death of M. Max, but to the fact that he (Max) had left behind him some m

n with the matter dated from the night of his meeting with the mysterious cabman in West India Dock Road. Or had the curtain first been lifted upon this o

ghtly, master-the

tood still and stared with unseeing eyes across the muddy waters of the Thames. He was thinking of the cowled man who had stood behind the c

mechanism of New Scotland Yard was in motion, its many tentacles seeking-seeking tirelessly-for the girl, whose dark eyes haunted his slee

ter-which did not belong to Stuart in the first place. And she had fail

st-End mortuary? The telephone message which had summoned Dunbar away had been too opportune

more than he was prepared to admit to hi

nd was in no other way concerned in the matter. But how had Mlle. Dorian, or the person instructing her, traced the envelope to his study? And why,

his walk. His reflections had led him to a second definite point and he fumbled in his waistcoat pocket for a time, seeking a certain brass coin

il he came to the entrance to a tube station. Entering a public telephone call-box, he asked

asked. "Yes! My name is Dr. Keppel Stuart. If Inspector D

short inte

me-"is that

had been really wide-awake. The envelope-you know the one I mean?-the one bearing the number, 30, has been sealed

sure?" as

he envelope with you and you will see that the coins correspond to the impression in the

now at once. It seems to establish

t merely adds t

ly carried) in his dispensary, which satisfactorily accounted fro his failure to find the coin in his waistcoat pocket. He had broken the cork of a flask, and in the absence of another of correct size had

entering the house he had occasion to visit it. Lying upon a shelf among flasks and bottles was t

ted somnambulis

k sealing-wax adh

e impression upon the wax sealing the mysterious envelope had had a circula

. A stick of black sealing wax used for sealing medicine was thrust in beside a b

what he should find, he raised the green baize curtain hanging from the lower shelf, which concealed a sort of

been roughly cut from th

ontents, the wax and the seal-all