So supposed the detective in whose hands the clew was immediately
placed; but when, an hour later, he descended the steps into Mother
Winch's cellar, he found that a keener and a swifter messenger than
himself had already called the wretched old woman to account; and
she lay across the rusty old stove, quite dead, with a broken bottle
of spirit upon the floor beside her, and all the front of her body
shockingly burned. The coroner who was called to see her decided
that she had fallen across the stove, either in a fit, or too much
intoxicated to move, and had died unconscious of her situation. She
was buried by public charity, and in her grave seemed hidden every
hope of tracing the lost child.

"She must have been carried from the city," said the detectives; and
the search was extended into the country, and to other towns and
cities, although not neglected at home.






CHAPTER XII.

TEDDY'S TEMPTATION.