the financial and other interests involved we have no
data."

"There," said Thorndyke, "I disagree with you entirely. I maintain that
we have ample data. You say that we have no means of judging which of
the various possible solutions is the true one; but I think that if you
read the report carefully and thoughtfully you will find that the facts
now known point to one explanation, and one only. It may not be the true
explanation, and I don't suppose it is. But we are now dealing with the
matter speculatively, academically, and I contend that our data yield a
definite conclusion. What do you say, Berkeley?"

"I say that it is time for me to be off; the evening consultations begin
at half-past six."

"Well," said Thorndyke, "don't let us keep you from your duties, with
poor Barnard currant picking in the Grecian Isles. But come in and see
us again. Drop in when you like after your work is done. You won't be
in our way even if we are busy, which we very seldom are after eight
o'clock."

I thanked Dr. Thorndyke most heartily for making me free of his chambers
in this hospitable fashion and took my leave, setting forth homeward by
way of Middle Temple Lane and the Embankment; not a very direct route for
Fetter Lane, it must be confessed; but our talk had revived my interest
in the Bellingham household and put me in a reflective vein.

From the remarkable conversation that I had overheard it was evident that
the plot was thickening. Not that I supposed that these two respectable
gentlemen really suspected one another of having made away with the
missing man; but still, their unguarded words, spoken in anger, made it
clear that each had allowed the thought of sinister possibilities to
enter his mind--a dangerous condition that might easily grow into actual
suspicion. And then the circumstances really were highly mysterious, as
I realized with especial vividness now after listening to my friend's
analysis of the evidence.

From the problem itself my mind traveled, not for the first time during
the last few days, to the handsome girl, who had seemed in my eyes the
high-priestess of this temple of mystery in the quaint little court.
What a strange figure she had made against this strange background, with
her quiet, chilly, self-contained manner, her pale face, so sad and worn,
her black, straight brows and solemn gray eyes, so inscrutable,
mysterious, Sibylline. A striking, even impressive, personality this, I
r