him at all, or if he came into focus. Perhaps he had even been able
unconsciously to count the flashes at the moment, and knew that
before the sixth flash arrived he was on the ledge of the window. At
any rate, he clearly gave up the attempt to remove the sixth, and
flung the whole apparatus away from him in a sudden access of
horror. We guessed as much both from the appearance of the spot
where the grass was trampled down, and the way the angle of the
camera was imbedded forcibly in the soft ground of the shrubbery."

"And he got away with the rest!" I exclaimed, following it up like a
story, but a story in which I was myself an unconscious character.

"No doubt," the Inspector answered, stroking his chin regretfully.
"And what's most annoying of all, we've every reason to suppose the
fellow stole the things only a few minutes before we actually missed
them. For we saw grounds for supposing he jumped away from the spot,
and climbed over the wall at the back, cutting his hands as he went
with the bottle-glass on the top to prevent intruders. And what
makes us think only a very short time must have elapsed between the
removal of the plates and the moment we came upon his tracks is
this--the blood from his cut hands was still fresh and wet upon the
wall when we found it."

"Then you only just missed him!" I exclaimed. "He got off by the
skin of his teeth. It's wonderful, when you were so near, you
shouldn't have managed to overtake him! One would have thought you
must have been able to track him to earth somehow!"

"One would have thought so," the Inspector answered, rather
crestfallen. "But policemen, after all, are human like the rest of