ng-door and go into the
glass-room we never discovered even the slightest trace of him, nor
have we been able to do so since. He has gone, he has vanished, as
completely as if he had melted into thin air, and if there is any
ghost of a clue to his whereabouts existing----"

"Let us go and see if we can unearth it," interrupted Cleek, rising.
"Mr. Narkom, is the limousine within easy reach?"

"Yes, waiting in Tavistock Street, dear chap. I told Lennard to be
on the lookout for us."

"Good! Then if Miss Larue will allow Mr. Trent to escort her as
far as the pavement, and he will then go on alone to his place of
business and await us there, you and I will leave the hotel by
the back way and join him as soon as possible. Leave by the front
entrance if you be so kind; and--pardon, one last word, Mr. Trent,
before you go. At the time when this boy's father vanished in much
the same way, eleven months ago, you had, I believe, a door porter
at your establishment name Felix Murchison. Is that man still in
your employ?"

"No, Mr. Cleek. He left about a week or so after James Colliver's
disappearance."

"Know where he is?"

"Not the slightest idea. As a matter of fact, he suddenly inherited
some money, and said he was going to emigrate to America. But I don't
know if he did or not. Why?"

"Oh, nothing in particular--only that I shouldn't be surprised if
the person who supplied that money was the pawnbroker who received in
pledge the jewels which your father handed over to James Colliver,
and that the sum which Felix Murchison 'inherited' so suddenly was
the L150 advanced upon those gems."

"How utterly absurd! My dear Mr. Cleek, you must surely remember
that the pawnbroker said the chap who pawned the jewels was a
gentlemanly appearing person, of good manners and speech, and
Murchison is the last man in the world to answer to that description.
A great hulking, bull-necked, illiterate _animal_ of that sort,
without an H in his vocabulary and with no more manners than a pig!"

"Precisely why I feel so certain _now_ that the pawnbroker's
'advance' was paid over to _him_," said Cleek, with a twitch of the
shoulder. "Live and learn, my friend, live and learn. Eleven
months ago I couldn't for the life of me understand why those
jewels had been pawned at all; to-day I realize that it was the only
possible course. Miss Larue, my compliments. Au revoir." And he
bowed her out of the room with the grace of a courtier, standing