servant, handed over the articles he had brought, and then noiselessly,
and with the air of one who had performed an expected service, retreated
to his old place in the antechamber, where he sat down again and fell
almost immediately into his former dazed condition.

"Humph! mind quite lost, memory uncertain, testimony valueless," were
the dissatisfied reflections of the disappointed detective as he
replaced Mr. Adams's hat and umbrella on the hall rack. "Has he been
brought to this state by the tragedy which has just taken place here, or
is his present insane condition its precursor and cause?" Mr. Gryce
might have found some answer to this question in his own mind if, at
that moment, the fitful clanging of the front door bell, which had
hitherto testified to the impatience of the curious crowd outside, had
not been broken into by an authoritative knock which at once put an end
to all self-communing.

The coroner, or some equally important person, was at hand, and the
detective's golden hour was over.




CHAPTER IV.

A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR MR. GRYCE.


Mr. Gryce felt himself at a greater disadvantage in his attempt to solve
the mystery of this affair than in any other which he had entered upon
in years. First, the victim had been a solitary man, with no household