ttle his confidential agent.

He might have been less impressed, however, by this sudden assumption
of manner, had he been so fortunate as to have seen how she employed the
three quarters of an hour's delay for which she had asked.

She read those neglected newspapers, especially the one containing the
following highly coloured narration of this ghastly crime:

"A door ajar--an empty hall--a line of sinister looking blotches
marking a guilty step diagonally across the flagging--silence--and an
unmistakable odour repugnant to all humanity,--such were the indications
which met the eyes of Officer O'Leary on his first round last night, and
led to the discovery of a murder which will long thrill the city by its
mystery and horror.

"Both the house and the victim are well known." Here followed a
description of the same and of Mrs. Doolittle's manner of life in
her ancient home, which Violet hurriedly passed over to come to the
following:

"As far as one can judge from appearances, the crime happened in this
wise: Mrs. Doolittle had been in her kitchen, as the tea-kettle found
singing on the stove goes to prove, and was coming back through her
bedroom, when the wretch, who had stolen in by the front door which, to
save steps, she was unfortunately in the habit of leaving on the latch
till all possibility of customers for the day was over, sprang upon her
from behind and dealt her a swinging blow with the poker he had caught
up from the hearthstone.

"Whether the struggle which ensued followed immediately upon this first
attack or came later, it will take medical experts to determine. But,
whenever it did occur, the fierceness of its character is shown by the
grip taken upon her throat and the traces of blood which are to be seen
all over the house. If the wretch had lugged her into her workroom and
thence to the kitchen, and thence back to the spot of first assault, the
evidences could not have been more ghastly. Bits of her clothing torn
off by a ruthless hand, lay scattered over all these floors. In her
bedroom, where she finally breathed her last, there could be seen
mingled with these a number of large but worthless glass beads; and
close against one of the base-boards, the string which had held them, as
shown by the few remaining beads still clinging to it. If in pulling the
string from her neck he had hoped to light upon some valuable booty,
his fury at his disappointment is evident. You can almost see the frenzy