oner was safely locked away in one of the numerous empty rooms,
while Rebecca was carried upstairs and laid upon the very bed which had
been hers.

"We must search the house," the inspector said; and Mrs. Jorrocks having
been brought out of her room, and having forthwith fainted and been
revived again, was ordered to accompany the police in their
investigation, which she did in a very dazed and stupefied manner.
Indeed, not a word could be got from her until, entering the
dining-room, she perceived her bottle of Hollands upon the table, on
which she raised up her voice and cursed the whole company, from the
inspector downwards, with the shrillest volubility of invective.
Having satisfied her soul in this manner, she wound up by a perfect
shriek of profanity, and breaking away from her guardians, she regained
the shelter of her room and locked herself up there, after which they
could hear by the drumming of her heels that she went into a violent
hysterical attack upon the floor.

Kate had, however, recovered sufficiently to be able to show the police
the different rooms, and to explain to them which was which.
The inspector examined the scanty furniture of Kate's apartment with
great interest.

"You say you have been living here for three weeks?" he said.

"Nearly a month," Kate answered.

"God help you! No wonder you look pale and ill. You have a fine
prospect from the window." He drew the blind aside and looked out into
the darkness. A gleam of moonlight lay upon the heaving ocean, and in
the centre of this silver streak was a single brown-sailed fishing-boat
running to the eastward before the wind. The inspector's keen eye
rested upon it for an instant, and then he dropped the blind and turned
away. It never flashed across his mind that the men whom he was hunting
down could have chosen that means of escape, and were already beyond his
reach.

He examined very carefully the rooms of Ezra and of his father.
Both had been furnished comfortably, if not solidly, with spring
mattresses to their beds and carpets upon the floor. The young man's
room had little in it beyond the mere furniture, which was natural, as
his visits were so short. In the merchant's chamber, however, were many
books and papers. On the little square table was a long slip of
foolscap covered with complex figures. It appeared to be a statement of
his affairs, in which he had been computing the liabilities of the firm.
By the side of it