the thief?"

I had been out of the court, I suppose thirty seconds; it cannot have
been more. Yet, when I went back with those two men, the woman had gone,
as though she had never been there. "She's over the wall," cried the
captain, running up the court. But when we looked over the wall there
was no trace of her, except some slight scratches upon the brick, where
her toes had rested. On the other side of the wall was a tulip bed full
of rows of late flowering tulips, not yet out. There was no footmark on
the earth. Plainly she had not jumped down on the other side. "Check,"
said captain. "Is she in one of the houses?"

But the houses on the left side of the court (on the other side the
court had no houses, only brick walls seven feet high) were all old,
barred in, deserted mansions, with padlocks on the doors. She could not
possibly have entered one of those.

"They're old plague-houses," said Mr. Jermyn.

"They've been deserted twenty years now, since the great sickness."

"Yes?" said the captain, carelessly. "But where can she have got to?"

"Well. It beats me," Mr. Jermyn replied. "But perhaps she ran along the
wall to the end, then jumped down into the lane. That's the only thing
she could have done. By the way, boy, you were shot at. Were you hit?"

"No," I answered. "But I got jolly near it. The bullet went just by me."

"Ah," he said. "Take this. You'll have to be armed in future."

He handed me a beautiful little double-barrelled pocket pistol. "Be
careful," he said. "It's loaded. Put it in your pocket. You musn't be
seen carrying arms here. That would never do."

"Boy," said the captain. "D'ye think you could shin up that water-spout,
so as to look over the parapet there, on to the leads of the houses?"

"Yes," I said. "I think I could, from the top of the wall."

"Why," Mr. Jermyn said. "She couldn't have got up there."

"An active woman might," the captain said. "You see, the water-spout is
only six feet long from the wall to the eaves. There's good footing on
the brackets. It's three quick steps. Then one vigorous heave over the
parapet. There you are, snug as a purser's billet, out of sight."

"No woman could have done it," Mr. Jermyn said. "Besides, look here. We
can't go further in the matter. We've recovered the book. We must get
back to the ship."

So the scheme of climbing up the water pipe came to nothing. We walked
off together wondering where the woman had got to. Long afterwards I