ked as if he had been running, or had been the victim of some
extraordinary adventure. At all events, the inspector arose as he
entered, and was about to question him when he remembered me, and,
casting about for some means of ridding himself of my presence without
injury to my feelings, he suddenly pushed open the door of an adjoining
room and requested me to step inside while he talked a moment with this
man.

Of course I went, but I cast him an appealing look as I did so. It
evidently had its effect, for his expression changed as his band fell on
the doorknob. Would he snap the lock tight, and so shut me out from what
concerned me as much as it did any one in the whole world? Or would
he recognize my anxiety--the necessity I was under of knowing just the
ground I was standing on--and let me hear what this man had to report?

I watched the door. It closed slowly, too slowly to latch. Would he
catch it anew by the knob? No; he left it thus, and, while the crack was
hardly perceptible, I felt confident that the least shake of the floor
would widen it and give me the opportunity I sought. But I did not have
to wait for this. The two men in the office I had just left began to
speak, and to my unbounded relief were sufficiently intelligible, even
now, to warrant me in giving them my fullest attention.

After some expressions of astonishment on the part of the inspector as
to the plight in which the other presented himself, the latter broke
out:

"I've just escaped death! I'll tell you about that later. What I want to
tell you now is that the man we want is in town. I saw him last
night, or his shadow, which is the same thing. It was in the house in
Eighty-sixth Street,--the house they all think closed. He came in with a
key and--"

"Wait! You have him?"

"No. It's a long story, sir--"

"Tell it!"

The tone was dry. The inspector was evidently disappointed.

"Don't blame me till you hear," said the other. "He is no common crook.
This is how it was: You wanted the suspect's photograph and a specimen
of his writing. I knew no better place to look for them than in his own
room in Mr. Fairbrother's house. I accordingly got the necessary warrant
and late last evening undertook the job. I went alone I was always an
egotistical chap, more's the pity--and with no further precaution than
a passing explanation to the officer I met at the corner, I hastened up
the block to the rear entrance on Eighty-seventh Street. There a