d Wessex. "I made a special visit to Wapping just to
get your opinion on the shaven man. I'm really going down to Deepbrow to
look into that new disappearance case; the daughter of the gamekeeper.
You'll have read of it?"

"I have," said Harley shortly.

Indeed, readers of the daily press were growing tired of seeing on the
contents bills: "Another girl missing." The circumstance (which might
have been no more than coincidence) that three girls had disappeared
within the last eight weeks leaving no trace behind, had stimulated the
professional scribes to link the cases, although no visible link had
been found, and to enliven a somewhat dull journalistic season with
theories about "a new Mormon menace."

The vanishing of this fourth girl had inspired them to some startling
headlines, and the case had interested me personally for the reason that
I was acquainted with Sir Howard Hepwell, one of whose gamekeepers was
the stepfather of the missing Molly Clayton. Moreover, it was hinted
that she had gone away in the company of Captain Ronald Vane, at that
time a guest of Sir Howard's at the Manor.

In fact, Sir Howard had 'phoned to ask me if I could induce Harley to
run down, but my friend had expressed himself as disinterested in a
common case of elopement. Now, as Wessex spoke, I glanced aside at
Harley, wondering if the fact that so celebrated a member of the C.I.D.
as Detective-Inspector Wessex had been put in charge would induce him to
change his mind.

We were traversing a particularly noisy and unsavoury section of the
Commercial Road, and although I could see that Wessex was anxious to
impart particulars of the case to Harley, so loud was the din that I
recognized the impossibility of conversing, and therefore:

"Have you time to call at my rooms, Wessex?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "I have three-quarters of an hour."

"You can do it in the car," said Harley suddenly. "I have been asked
to look into this case myself, and before I definitely decline I should
like to hear your version of the matter."

Accordingly, we three presently gathered in my chambers, and Wessex,
with one eye on the clock, outlined the few facts at that time in his
possession respecting the missing girl.

Two days before the news of the disappearance had been published
broadcast under such headings as I have already indicated, a significant
scene had been enacted in the gamekeeper's cottage.

Molly Clayton, a girl whose remarkable