the stairs which led to the first floor. At the foot of the stairs, however,

she met this Lascar scoundrel of whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and,

aided by a Dane, who acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street.

Filled with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the lane and,

by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of constables with an

inspector, all on their way to their beat. The inspector and two men

accompanied her back, and in spite of the continued resistance of the

proprietor, they made their way to the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last

been seen. There was no sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor

there was no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, it

seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly swore that no one

else had been in the front room during the afternoon. So determined was their

denial that the inspector was staggered, and had almost come to believe that

Mrs. St. Clair had been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal

box which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell a cascade

of children’s bricks. It was the toy which he had promised to bring home.


“This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple showed, made

the inspector realise that the matter was serious. The rooms were carefully

examined, and results all pointed to an abominable crime. The front room was

plainly furnished as a sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked

out upon the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom

window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered at high tide

with at least four and a half feet of water. The bedroom window was a broad one

and opened from below. On examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the

windowsill, and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of