breath.

"On arrival at his house facing Vondel Park, he dressed, ate
his dinner alone, and was about to re-enter his car to drive
to the Park Schouwburg, where opera was being given that
night, when he staggered and fell just outside the gate, and
expired in a few moments.

"Though a medical examination proved that death was due to
heart failure, some comment has been caused by the valet's
story of his master's mysterious visitor at The Hague. The
latter he describes as middle-aged, with a small dark
moustache, a ruddy complexion, wearing round horn-rimmed
spectacles. He thinks the latter were worn for purposes of
disguise.

"Three doctors have, however, declared that death ensued
from natural causes, hence the police discredit the valet's
story. Baron van Veltrup, who was well known in
international finance, was a frequent visitor to London,
where he had permanent chambers in Jermyn Street. He was in
the habit of receiving strange callers--persons who probably
gave him secret information regarding Government concessions
and other such matters. Therefore it is not believed that
the man whom he met in secret has any connexion with his
sudden and lamented death. The Baron contributed most
generously to Dutch charities, especially to the Blinden
Institution, of which he was one of the governors.

"Some of his financial deals were of outstanding magnitude.
The last loan to Peru was made through his house, in
combination with that of Chamartin, in Madrid, while he
negotiated a big loan to Serbia immediately before the war,
as well as obtaining the concessions for two new railways in
Northern Italy and in Portugal. The reputation of the house
of Veltrup was one of the highest standing, and the Baron's
untimely death has cast a gloom over financial circles in
all the European capitals."

I raised my eyes from the paper and gazed across the Thames now
growing grey in the evening light. Outside, the soft wind whispered in
the trees and across the long suspension bridge ran an endless stream
of motor traffic into and out of London.

The affair in Amsterdam was certainly curious, but what attracted me
most was the fact that the dead Baron had been a partner with the late
Count Chamartin, whose widow I knew by sight. The Count had also died
very suddenly. So