re building!"

Mrs. Bunting looked at him thoughtfully. It occurred to Mr. Hopkins
that she was very wan and tired; she used to look better in the old
days, when she was still in service, before Bunting married her.

"Yes," she said; "that's just what my stepdaughter said just now.
'Oh, take me to the Chamber of Horrors'--that's exactly what she
did say when we got upstairs."

******

A group of people, all talking and laughing together; were advancing,
from within the wooden barrier, toward the turnstile.

Mrs. Bunting stared at them nervously. She wondered which of them
was the gentleman with whom Mr. Hopkins had hoped she would never be
brought into personal contact; she thought she could pick him out
among the others. He was a tall, powerful, handsome gentleman, with
a military appearance.

Just now he was smiling down into the face of a young lady.
"Monsieur Barberoux is quite right," he was saying in a loud,
cheerful voice, "our English law is too kind to the criminal,
especially to the murderer. If we conducted our trials in the
French fashion, the place we have just left would be very much
fuller than it is to-day. A man of whose guilt we are absolutely
assured is oftener than not acquitted, and then the public taunt
us with 'another undiscovered crime!'"

"D'you mean, Sir John, that murderers sometimes escape scot-free?
Take the man who has been committing all these awful murders this
last month? I suppose there's no doubt he'll be hanged--if he's
ever caught, that is!"

Her girlish voice rang out, and Mrs. Bunting could hear every word
that was said.

The whole party gathered round, listening eagerly. "Well, no."
He spoke very deliberately. "I doubt if that particular murderer
ever will be hanged."

"You mean that you'll never catch him?" the girl spoke with a touch
of airy impertinence in her clear voice.

"I think we shall end by catching him--because"--he waited a moment,
then added in a lower voice--"now don't give me away to a newspaper
fellow, Miss Rose--because now I think we do know who the murderer
in question is--"

Several of those standing near by uttered expressions of surprise and
incredulity.

"Then why don't you catch him?" cried the girl indignantly.

"I didn't say we knew where he was; I only said we knew who he was,
or, rather, perhaps I ought to say that I personally have a very
strong suspicion of his identity."

Sir John's French colleague looked up quickly. "De Leip