acrostics like that?"

"Nobody. Life's too short; but if I devoted a year to a perfect
acrostic, you bet your life it would take my fellow creatures a year
to guess it. The same with cryptography, which we've both run up
against, no doubt, in course of business. Cyphers are mostly crude;
but I've often thought what a right down beauty it might be possible
to make, given a little pains. The detective story writers make very
good ones sometimes; but then the smart man, who wipes everybody's
eyes, always gets 'em--by pulling down just the right book from the
villain's library. My cryptograph won't depend on books."

Peter chattered on; then he suddenly stopped and turned to his notes
again.

He looked up presently.

"The hard thing before us is this," he said, "to get into touch with
Robert Redmayne, or his ghost. There are two sorts of ghost, Mark;
the real thing--in which you don't believe and concerning which I
hold a watching brief; and the manufactured article. Now the
manufactured article can be quite as useful to the bulls as the
crooks."

"You believe in ghosts!"

"I didn't say so. But I keep an open mind. I've heard some funny
things from men whose word could be relied upon."

"If this is a ghost, that's a way out, of course; but in that case
why are you frightened for Albert Redmayne's life?"

"I don't say he's a ghost and of course I don't think he's a ghost;
but--"

He broke off and changed the subject.

"What I'm doing is to compare your verbal statement with Mr.
Redmayne's written communication," he said, patting his book. "My
old friend goes back a long way farther than you would, because he
knows a lot more than you did. It's all here. I've got a regard for
my eyes, so I had it typed. You'd better read it, however. You'll
find the story of Robert Redmayne from childhood and the story of
the girl, his niece, and of her dead father. Mrs. Doria's father was
a rough customer--scorpions to Robert's whips apparently--a man a
bit out of the common; yet he never came to open clash with the law.
You never thought of Robert's dead brother, Henry, did you! But
you'd be surprised how we can get at character and explain
contradictions by studying the different members of a family."

"I shall like to read the report."

"It's valuable to us, because written without prejudice. That's
where it beats your very lucid account, Mark. There was something
running through your story, like a thread of silk in cotto