lock on the
Post Office, an' 'e gives me a sov., an' then he goes a-tearin' up the
street like anything."

"Take him about twenty minutes to walk to East Melbourne," said Calton
to himself "So he must just have got in at the time Mrs. Sampson said.
He was in with the 'Queen' the whole time, I suppose?" he asked,
looking keenly at Sal.

"I was at that door," said Sal, pointing to it, "an' 'e couldn't 'ave
got out unless I'd seen 'im."

"Oh, it's all right," said Calton, nodding to Kilsip, "there won't be
any difficulty in proving an ALIBI. But I say," he added, turning to
Sal, "what were they talking about?"

"I dunno," answered Sal. "I was at the door, an' they talks that quiet
I couldn't 'ear 'em. Then he sings out, 'My G--, it's too horrible!'
an' I 'ear 'er a larfin' like to bust, an' then 'e comes to me, and
ses, quite wild like, 'Take me out of this 'ell!' an' I tooked 'im."

"And when you came back?"

"She was dead."

"Dead?"

"As a blessed door-nail," said Sal, cheerfully.

"An' I never knowd I was in the room with a corpse," wailed Mother
Guttersnipe, waking up. "Cuss 'er, she was allays a-doin' contrary
things."

"How do you know?" said Calton, sharply, as he rose to go.

"I knowd 'er longer nor you," croaked the old woman, fixing one evil
eye on the lawyer; "an' I know what you'd like to know; but ye shan't,
ye shan't."

Calton turned from her with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You will come to the Court to-morrow with Mr. Kilsip," he said to Sal,
"and tell what you have just now told me."

"It's all true, s'elp me," said Sal, eagerly; "'e was 'ere all the
time."

Calton stepped towards the door, followed by the detective, when Mother
Guttersnipe rose.

"Where's the money for finin' her?" she screeched, pointing one skinny
finger at Sal.

"Well, considering the girl found herself," said Calton, dryly, "the
money is in the bank, and will remain there."

"An' I'm to be done out of my 'ard earned tin, s'elp me?" howled the
old fury. "Cuss ye, I'll 'ave the lawr of ye, and get ye put in quod."

"You'll go there yourself if you don't take care," said Kilsip, in his
soft, purring tones.

"Yah!" shrieked Mother Guttersnipe, snapping her fingers at him. "What
do I care about yer quod? Ain't I bin in Pentrig', an' it ain't 'urt
me, it ain't? I'm as lively as a gal, I am."

And the old fury, to prove the truth of her words, danced a kind of war
dance in front of Mr. Calton, snapping her finge