the hand, and looking into his face I pointed out
that I had done and was doing all I could to elucidate the mystery.

"At least," I cried, "you will wait until the fugitives are arrested!"

"There is only one--the impostor," he said. "There is no charge against
the others."

"Then I will lay a charge to-night against the woman Petre and the man
Ali of attempting to kill me." I said. "The two names can then be added
to the warrant."

"Very well," he said. "We'll go to the Yard, and I will take your
information."

"And you will not approach Phrida until you hear something from
Brussels--eh?" I asked persuasively. "In the meantime, I will do all I
can. Leave Miss Shand to me."

"If I did it would be a grave dereliction of duty," he replied slowly.

"But is it a dereliction of duty to disregard allegations made by a woman
who has fled in that man's company, and who is, we now know, his
accomplice?" I protested. "Did not you yourself tell me that you, at
Scotland Yard, always regarded lightly any anonymous communication?"

"As a rule we do. But past history shows that many have been genuine," he
said. "Before the commission of nearly all the Jack the Ripper crimes
there were anonymous letters, written in red ink. We have them now framed
and hanging up in the Black Museum."

"But such letters are not denunciations. They were promises of a further
sensation," I argued. "The triumphant and gleeful declarations of the mad
but mysterious assassin. No. Promise me, Edwards, that you will postpone
this projected step of yours, which can, in any case, even though my love
be innocent, only result in dire disaster."

He saw how earnest was my appeal, and realised, I think, the extreme
gravity of the situation, and how deeply it concerned me. He seemed,
also, to recognise that in discovering the name of the victim and in
going a second time to Brussels, I had been able to considerably advance
the most difficult inquiry; therefore, after still another quarter of an
hour of persuasion, I induced him to withhold.

"Very well," he replied, "though I can make no definite promise, Mr.
Royle. I will not see the lady before I have again consulted with you.
But," he added, "I must be frank with you. I shall continue my
investigations in that quarter, and most probably watch will be kept upon
her movements."

"And if she recognises that you suspect her?" I gasped.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "I canno