nyone about the
adventures he had met with. He knew that he should have to go through
the ordeal of an interview with his sister, Doreen, who would want to
know a great deal more than he was willing to tell her; but he was
tired, and he made up his mind that he would not be interrogated that
evening. So he gave her no opportunity for the confidential talk she was
dying to have with him, but spent the remainder of the evening in
dutiful attendance upon his mother.

The following day was Christmas Eve. Max came down late to breakfast,
and he had scarcely entered the morning-room when his father handed him
the _Standard_, pointing to a certain paragraph without any comment
but a glance at the girls, as a hint to his son not to make any remark
which would recall Dudley and his affairs to their minds.

The paragraph was as follows:

"SHOCKING DISCOVERY!

"The body of a man was found floating in the river close to
Limehouse Pier late yesterday evening. Medical evidence points to
death by violence, and the police are making inquiries. It is
thought that the description of the body, which is that of a man of
a Jewish type of countenance, rather under than over the middle
height, aged between fifty and fifty-five, gray hair and short,
gray beard, tallies with that given a few days ago by a woman who
applied at the ---- Street Police Court, alleging that her husband
had disappeared in the above neighborhood. The police are extremely
reticent, but at the present they have no clue to the authors of
the outrage. The body awaits identification at the mortuary, and an
inquest will be held to-day."

"I wonder whether Dudley will see that?" said Mr. Wedmore, in a low
voice, as soon as his daughters were engaged in talk together. "It looks
like the sequel to the other paragraph which upset him so the other
evening, doesn't it? I shall watch the papers for the result of the
inquest. It seems to me pretty certain that it was Edward Jacobs.
Curious affair, isn't it, that he should be murdered in a slum, after
making a fortune at other people's expense? Retribution--just
retribution! Curious, isn't it!"

To Max it was so much more than merely "curious," knowing what he did,
that he felt sick with horror. Surely this body, found floating near
Limehouse Pier, was the one he had touched in the dark!

CHAPTER XIV.

IS IT BLACKMAIL?

Mr. Wedmore repeated his comment: "Curious, isn't it?" before Max could
reply. At last he nod