said Ashton-Kirk, as an afterthought.
"Would it be convenient for you to let him know that I can be seen at
six?"

The fear that his soothing words had driven from her eyes, swept back
into them; he saw her tremble and steady herself against the
door-frame.

"I cannot let him know," she said. "I have not seen him since--since
the time I have mentioned. I have waited, telephoned, sent messages,
even gone in person. But I could not find him. No one seems to know
anything of his whereabouts."

CHAPTER X

ASHTON-KIRK ASKS QUESTIONS

For some time after Miss Vale had gone, Ashton-Kirk stood at one of
the windows and looked down at the sordid, surging, dirty crowd in
the street. The worn horses went dispiritedly up and down; the
throaty-voiced men clamored strangely through their beards; children
played in the black ooze of the gutters; women bundled in immense
knitted garments and with their heads wrapped in shawls, haggled over
scatterings of faded, weak looking vegetables. The vendors grew
frantic and eloquent in their combats with these experienced
purchasers; their gestures were high, sharp and loaded with protest.

Then Pendleton came. He was burdened with newspapers and wore an
excited look.

"I brought these, thinking that perhaps you had not seen them," he
exclaimed, throwing the dailies among the others upon the floor. "But
I note that your morning's reading has been very complete. Now tell
me, Kirk, what the mischief do you think of all this?"

"I suppose, you refer to the published reports of the Hume case?"

"Of course! As far as I am concerned, there is not, just now, any
other thing of consequence on earth." Then he struck the table with
his fist. "And it's all the fault of that cur--Allan Morris! Every bit
of it! There is not a space writer or amateur detective on a single
paper in the city that hasn't his nose to the ground at this minute,
hunting the trail. They are all at it. I stopped at the Vale's on my
way here, but they told me she was not at home. From the top step to
the curb, on my way out, I was stopped four times by stony-faced young
men all anxious to make good with their city editors. 'Was I a friend
of the family? Did Miss Vale seem at all upset by the matter? Where
was Allan Morris? What brought him so frequently, as Brolatsky said,
to see Hume?' I believe they'd have come over the back of my car even
after I started, if I had given but an encouraging look."

"The evening