s mad enough to intend
letting the thing remain a part of the tableau. I fancy he would
have found an excuse to get it out somehow and to make away with it
entirely, as, no doubt, he did with the body of Loti.

"What's that, Mr. Narkom? No, I don't think that Murchison had any
actual hand in the crime or really knew the identity of the man. I
fancy he must have gone up to tell the fictitious Loti that he knew
James Colliver had entered that glass-room and never come out of
it, and Colliver, of course, had to shut his mouth by buying him off
and sending him out of the country. That is why he took yet another
disguise and pawned the jewels. He had to get the money some way.
As for the rest, I imagine that when Colliver went up to the room to
see that wax head, and Loti caught sight of him, the old Italian
jumped on him like a mad tiger; and, seeing that it was Loti's life
or his own, Colliver throttled him. When that was done, the necessity
for disposing of the body arose, and the imposture was the actual
outcome of a desire to save his own neck. That's all, I think, Mr.
Narkom; so you may revise your 'notes' and mark down the Colliver
case as 'solved' at last and the mystery of it cleared up after all."

* * * * *

Three hours of patient waiting had passed and gone. The darkness
had fallen, the streets were still, save for the faint hum of life
coming from districts afar, and the time for action had come at last.
Cleek rose and put on his hat.

"I think we may safely venture to remove our prisoner now, Mr.
Narkom," he said, "and if you will slip out the back way and get
Lennard to bring the limousine around to the head of that narrow
alley----"

"They're there already, dear chap. I stationed Lennard there when I
went across to look into that business about the painted blind. It
seemed the least conspicuous place for him to wait."

"Excellent! Then, if you will run on ahead and have the door of it
open for me and everything ready so that we may whisk him in and
be off like a shot, and Mr. Trent will let one of these good chaps
here run down to the man's room and fetch him a hat, I'll attend
to his removal."

"Here's one here, sir, that'll do at a pinch and save time,"
suggested one of the men, picking up a cavalryman's hat from the
wreck of the ruined tableau and dusting it by slapping it against
his thigh. "I don't think he'll resist much, sir; he seems to have
gone cle