"Go, by all means. Probably they'll be glad of your advice and
assistance in many ways."

I dreaded the errand, yet I thought if the police had had to go and
tell Winnie and Aunt Lucy any such awful news, how glad they'd be to
have somebody present of their own world, even of their own
neighborhood. So I went.

As we had been told, the Schuyler house was only a few doors below the
Avenue corner. Even as Mason rang the bell, I was thinking how strange
that a man should go to a house where he desired to conceal his own
name, when it was so near his own dwelling.

And yet, I knew, too, that the houses on Fifth Avenue are as far
removed from houses just off the Avenue, as if they were in a
different town.

Mason's ring was answered by a keen-eyed man of imperturbable
countenance.

"What's wanted?" he said, gazing calmly at the policemen.

"Where is Mr. Schuyler?" asked the inspector, in a matter-of-fact way.

"He's out," said the man, respectfully enough, but of no mind to be
loquacious.

"Where?"

"I don't know. He went to his club after dinner, and has not yet