and according to her will the place had to be left
undisturbed, and let furnished. The solicitors placed it in our hands,
but the property until the twenty years have elapsed, is quite
untenantable. The whole place has now gone to rack and ruin. We have a
number of other furnished houses which I will be most delighted to
give you orders to view."

In pretence that I wanted a house I allowed him to select three for
me, and while doing so learnt some further particulars regarding the
dark house in Porchester Terrace. As far as he knew, the story of Mrs.
Carpenter's relatives taking secret possession was a myth.

The caretaker had been withdrawn two years ago, and the place simply
locked up and left. If burglars broke in, there was nothing of value
for them to take, he added.

Thus the result of my inquiries went to confirm my suspicion that the
ingenious pair of malefactors had taken possession of the place
temporarily, in order to pursue their nefarious plans.

There was a garden at the rear. Might it not also be the grave wherein
the bodies of their innocent victims were interred?

That afternoon, at four, I met Jack Marlowe in White's, and as we sat
in our big arm-chairs gazing through the windows out into the sunshine
of St. James's Street, I asked him whether he would be prepared to
accompany me upon an adventurous visit to a house in Bayswater.

The long-legged, clean-shaven, clean-limbed fellow with the fairish
hair and merry grey eyes looked askance for a moment, and then
inquired--

"What's up, old man? What's the game?" He was always eager for an
adventure, I knew.

"Well, the fact is I want to look around a house in Porchester
Terrace, that's all. I want to search the garden when nobody's about."

"Why?"

"In order to satisfy myself about something."

"Become an amateur detective--eh, Owen?"

"Well, my curiosity has certainly been aroused, and I intend to go to
the house late to-night and look round the garden. Will you come?"

He was one of the best of good fellows, overflowing with good humour
and good nature. His face seemed to wear a perpetual smile of
contentment.

"Of course. But tell me more," he asked.

"I will--afterwards," I said. "Let's dine together somewhere, and turn
in at the Empire afterwards. We don't want to get to Bayswater before
midnight, as we mustn't be seen. Don't dress. I'll bring an electric
torch."

"I've got one. I'll bring mine also," he replied, at once enterin