rs. Bensusan, who tried to civilise her."

"I don't think she succeeded very well, Link. Rhoda, with her cunning
ways and roaming about at night, was always a savage at heart. In spite
of what Clyne says in his confession, I believe she took a delight in
turning No. 13 into a haunted house with her shrieking and her flitting
candles. How she must have enjoyed herself when she heard the talk about
the ghost!"

"I have no doubt she did, Mr. Denzil, but even those delights wearied
her, and she longed to get back to the free gypsy life. When she
found--through you, sir--that the police wanted to know too much about
Clear's death, she left Mrs. Bensusan in the lurch, and tramped off down
to the New Forest, where she picked up again with her tribe."

"How did her mistress take her desertion?"

"Very much to heart, as she had treated the young savage very kindly,
and ought to have received more gratitude. Perhaps when she hears how
her adopted child wandered about at night, and ended by killing Clear,
she will be glad she is dead and buried. Yet, I don't know. Women are
wonderfully soft-hearted, and certainly Rhoda is thought no end of by
that fat woman."

"Well! well!" said Lucian, impatient of this digression. "So Rhoda went
back to her tribe?"

"Yes, sir; and as she was sharp, clever, and, moreover, came with some
money which she had stolen from Mrs. Bensusan--for she added theft to
ingratitude--she was received with open arms. With her gypsy cousins she
went about in the true gypsy style, but, not being hardened to the
outdoor life in wet weather, she fell ill."

"Civilisation made her delicate, I suppose," said Denzil grimly.

"Exactly; she was not fit for the tent life after having lived for so
long under a comfortable roof. She fell ill with inflammation of the
lungs, and in a wonderfully short space of time she died."

"When did she confess her crime?"

"I'm coming to that, sir. When she was dying she sent two gypsies to the
nearest magistrate--who happened to be the vicar of the parish in which
the tribe were then encamped--and asked him to see her on a matter of
life and death. The vicar came at once, and when he became aware that
Rhoda was the girl wanted in the Vrain case--for he had read all about
her in the papers--he became very interested. He took down the
confession of the wretched girl, had it signed by two witnesses and
Rhoda herself, and sent it up to Scotland Yard."

"And this confession----"