nt the facts I
have to relate in a proper manner till I know just how the case stands."

"It is not curiosity that troubles Miss Butterworth--Madam, I said it
was not curiosity--but a laudable desire to have the whole matter
arranged with precision," dropped now in his dryest tones from the
detective's lips.

"Mr. Gryce has a most excellent understanding of my character," I
gravely observed.

The Inspector looked nonplussed. He glanced at Mr. Gryce and he glanced
at me, but the smile of the former was inscrutable, and my expression,
if I showed any, must have betrayed but little relenting.

"If called as a witness, Miss Butterworth,"--this was how he sought to
manage me,--"you will have no choice in the matter. You will be
compelled to speak or show contempt of court."

"That is true," I acknowledged. "But it is not what I might feel myself
called upon to say then, but what I can say now, that is of interest to
you at this present moment. So be generous, gentlemen, and satisfy my
curiosity, for such Mr. Gryce considers it, in spite of his assertions
to the contrary. Will it not all come out in the papers a few hours
hence, and have I not earned as much at your hands as the reporters?"

"The reporters are our bane. Do not liken yourself to the reporters."

"Yet they sometimes give you a valuable clue."

Mr. Gryce looked as if he would like to disclaim this, but he was a
judicious soul, and merely gave a twist to the vase which I thought
would cost me that small article of vertu.

"Shall we humor Miss Butterworth?" asked the Inspector.

"We will do better," answered Mr. Gryce, setting the vase down with a
precision that made me jump; for I am a worshipper of _bric-a-brac_, and
prize the few articles I own, possibly beyond their real value. "We will
treat her as a coadjutor, which, by the way, she says she is not, and by
the trust we place in her, secure that discretionary use of our
confidence which she shows with so much spirit in regard to her own."

"Begin then," said I.

"I will," said he, "but first allow me to acknowledge that you are the
person who first put us on the track of Franklin Van Burnam."

XXX.

THE MATTER AS STATED BY MR. GRYCE.

I had exhausted my wonder, so I accepted this statement with no more
display of surprise than a grim smile.

"When you failed to identify Howard Van Burnam as the man who
accompanied his wife into the adjacent house, I realized that I must
look elsewh