lso
turned their eyes on Zelie de Longarde's valuables. The French maid,
Lisette, was probably nothing but a tool, a cat's paw, and she, having
done her work, has been cleverly removed so that she could never split.
Further--"

A quiet knock at the door just then prefaced the entrance of Mrs. Marlow,
who gave her employer an inquiring glance.

"Mr. Blindway to see you," she announced. "Shall I show him in?"

"At once!" replied Fullaway. He leapt from his chair, and going to the
door called to the detective to enter. "News?" he asked excitedly, when
Mrs. Marlow had retired, closing the door again. "What is it--important?"

The detective, who looked very solemn, drew a letter-case from his
pocket, and slowly produced a telegram.

"Important enough," he answered. "This case is assuming a very
strange complexion, gentlemen. This arrived from Hull half an hour
ago, and the chief thought I'd better bring it on to you at once. You
see what it is--"

He held the telegram out to both men, and they read it together, Fullaway
muttering the words as he read--

From _Chief Constable, Hull, to Superintendent C.I.D., New
Scotland Yard_.

Dr. Lydenberg, concerned in Allerdyke case, was shot dead in High Street
here this morning by unseen person, who is up to now unarrested and to
whose identity we have no clue.

CHAPTER XIII

AMBLER APPLEYARD

Fullaway laid the telegram down on his table and looked from it to the
detective.

"Shot dead--High Street--this morning?" he said wonderingly. "Why!--that
means, of course, in broad daylight--in a busy street, I suppose? And
yet--no clue. How could a man be shot dead under such circumstances
without the murderer being seen and followed?"

"You don't know Hull very well," remarked Allerdyke, who had been pulling
his moustache and frowning over the telegram, "else you'd know how that
could be done easy enough in High Street. High Street," he went on,
turning to the detective, "is the oldest street in the town. It's the old
merchant street. Half of it--lower end--is more or less in ruins. There
are old houses there which aren't tenanted. Back of these houses are
courts and alleys and queer entries, leading on one side to the river,
and on the other to side streets. A man could be lured into one of those
places and put out of the way easily and quietly enough. Or he could be
shot by anybody lurking in one of those houses, and the murderer could be
got away unobserved with t