aconically.
"I've been doing naught else since I got that wireless telegram."

Then they relapsed into silence until the Waldorf was reached.
There Fullaway raced his companion upstairs to his rooms and burst
in upon Mrs. Marlow like a whirlwind. The pretty secretary, busied
with her typewriter, looked up, glanced at both men, and calmly
resumed her labours.

"Mrs. Marlow!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Just step to Mr. Van Koon's rooms
and beg him to come back here to my sitting-room with you--important
business, Mrs. Marlow--I want you, too."

Allerdyke, closely watching the woman around whom so much mystery
centred, saw that she did not move so much as an eyelash. She laid her
work aside, left the room, and within a minute returned with Van Koon,
who gazed at Fullaway with an air of half-amused inquiry.

"Something happened?" he asked, nodding to Allerdyke. "Town on fire?"

"Van Koon, sit down," commanded Fullaway, pushing his compatriot into the
inner room. "Mrs. Marlow, fasten that outer door and come in here. We're
going to have a stiff conference. Sit down, please, all of you. Now," he
went on, when the other three had ranged themselves about the centre
table, "There is news, Van Koon. Allerdyke and I have just come away from
an hotel in the Docks where we've seen the dead body of a young man who's
been found dead there under precisely similar circumstances to those
which attended the death of the French maid in Eastbourne Terrace. We've
also heard a description of a man who was at this hotel in the Docks last
night--it corresponds to that of the fellow who accompanied Lisette
Beaurepaire. I, personally, have no doubt that this man, whoever he is,
is the murderer of Lisette and of this youngster whose body we've just
seen. Mrs. Marlow, this dead young fellow, from whose death-chamber we've
just come, is that valet I used to have here--Ebers. You remember him?"

"Sure!" answered Mrs. Marlow, quite calmly and unconcernedly. "Very
well indeed."

"This Ebers," continued Fullaway, turning to Van Koon, "was a young
fellow, Swiss, German, something of that sort, who acted as valet to me
and to some other men here in this hotel for a time. I needn't go into
too many details now, but there's no doubt that he knew, and was in touch
with, Lisette Beaurepaire, and Miss Lennard positively identifies him as
the man who met her and Lisette at Hull, and represented himself as
Lisette's brother. Now then, Ebers--we'll stick to that