as closed, but I remembered what you had told me when I heard his name, and as soon as I had finished with him on my own account I thought I would ask him a question or two on your behalf. This was last Friday afternoon, several hours after I had sent you that telegram, so you see you were in my mind. It seems that he knew Northbrook well during the early months of last year-that is, as you will remember, at the time when he was living in Gower Street, and before he met the lady who disappeared from the Casabianca. I fancy that Northbrook was trying to pull off that game of defrauding the big bookmakers at that time, and that Scarlett was helping him, though I couldn't get him to acknowledge it. Anyway, Northbrook disappeared somewhere along in March, owing Scarlett and his pals a good bit of money, and they were unable to locate him. You see, they didn't think of looking for him in places like the Savoy or Azalea Mansions until it was too late.

"They always called him Northbrook, or the doctor, but Scarlett believed that his real name was John Northbrook Hickey, for one of the gang said he remembered him as a ship's surgeon on an AngloIndian Company's boat which brought a cargo of walers from Australia to Colombo, and said that he was called Hickey at that time. Scarlett was sure

was Northbrook. He lost him in the crowd that day, and hadn't been able to pick up his tracks. Well, the fact that this fellow was a doctor and that his middle name was Northbrook made me think a bit, and the more I thought of it the less I liked it. My case in the North was complete, so I decided to go straight to London and see what I could do. I knew that time was the essential element in the case, so I sent off a wire to headquarters saying that I was coming, and asking them to get the following information :

"1. From the office of the Anglo-Indian Steamship Company all they knew about Dr John Northbrook Hickey, late of their service; and

"2. As a long shot, and a very good shot, too, as it turned out-from Mr John Northbrook of Park Crescent, whether he knew anything about a John Northbrook Hickey, who might possibly have used his uncle's number at the Army and Navy Stores.

"I missed the night train to Town, but I got one at 6 A.M., and when I arrived the reports were waiting for me. me. They were so suggestive that I went straight off to the commissioner, and got leave to come on this trip. I had missed her at Tilbury, but I got a train to Gravesend, and came off in the boat that took the pilot ashore. You didn't see me, eh?"

"No," said Mr Peabody.

"I was below. I sent you a letter by the pilot, though. But what about these reports?" "I have them here," replied the inspector, producing producing a bundle of papers from his pocket and selecting two. "First, the report from the Anglo-Indian Company :

"John Northbrook Hickey, M.D., Edinburgh, joined the Company in 1903. He was on the books for eighteen months, and was then discharged because of his connection with a very unpleasant case which occurred while he was surgeon of the Gwalior on a voyage from Brisbane to Calcutta. There was a young Australian lady on board to whom Hickey had been paying considerable attention. One night in the Indian Ocean this young lady disappeared. It was thought that she must have fallen overboard. She was never heard of again. Later a valuable pearl necklace, which was recognised as having belonged to the young lady, was found by accident tucked away under the bunk in Hickey's cabin. He could give no explanation as to how it came to be there, but thought that the lady must have dropped it when she was paying him a visit, which she had done on several occasions. No action was taken on the

case beyond discharging Hickey from the Company, for there was no evidence of any sort against him.""

Mr Peabody. Mr Peabody. "Do you suppose he killed her too!"

"I shouldn't be surprised," returned the inspector. "He must have been a bad man. Now for the report from Mr John Northbrook of Park Crescent :

"John Northbrook Hickey is my cousin. My father's sister married Jacob Hickey of Montreal, and John Northbrook Hickey is their only child.

He is a doctor of medicine. He took his degree at Edinburgh University with distinction, and subsequently returned to Canada and took up the post of Demonstrator of Anatomy at St Mungo's University. During the time when he was studying medicine in Scotland Hickey always spent his vacations with his, and my, uncle, James Northbrook of Park Crescent. He would certainly have been familiar with and have used my uncle's ticket number at the Army and Navy Stores. He was always a brilliant student and, I understand, a very charming fellow, though I have not met him since he was a boy, but he was a terrible gambler and always in debt. He left St Mungo's under a cloud, and the family lost sight of him. It is believed that he emigrated to Australia.'"

"Demonstrator of Anatomy,"

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"Do you know what we found in his kit in the cabin when we searched it this morning?" asked Inspector Thesiger.

"A complete set of postmortem instruments," replied Thesiger. "They are quite new; evidently bought for the occasion. Grim work, Peabody!

"I'll tell you after lunch," answered Thesiger. answered Thesiger. "There is the bugle."

"How is Mrs Taylor? " asked Mr Peabody that evening, after the body of his late antagonist had slid peacefully overboard to its last restingplace on the ocean bed. "I didn't see any one at the service who resembled my idea of her."

“No,” replied Inspector Thesiger. "I have advised her to stay in her cabin for a few days. She is much better, but she is not quite fit as yet. I think Hickey, or Northbrook as I call him in my own mind, had been doping her systematically for some days before they came on board."

"How long had they been married?" asked Mr Peabody. "About a month, poor little woman," said Thesiger. "She is an American, by the way. Northbrook met her in Paris, where she was spending the

winter. For years she had lived a very quiet life, looking after her invalid mother. The father died when she was a child. Her mother died the winter before last, and after she had settled up her affairs she came abroad. She is pretty well off I gather, or was before Northbrook got hold of her. He invested a good deal of her money in Australian securities -at least that is what he told her-but I fancy that it all went into his own pocket. They were on their way to Australia to look over some property that he said he had bought her, adjoining his own. estates."

"What a devil the fellow must have been," said Mr Peabody. "I suppose he treated the unfortunate Casabianca woman in the same way."

"I've no doubt of it," answered the inspector, "he seems to have had a wonderful fascination for women. Well, now to get on with my story. As soon as I got on board I told the captain the whole yarn. He was all for going after the fellow at once and once and putting him ashore, but, as I pointed out to him, we had absolutely nothing to go on. As far as I could see he could just laugh at us, for we hadn't a rag of evidence to bring to a jury. Well, the end of it was that I got leave to do the thing in my own way. I took the purser into my confidence ; no one else. You see the thing was extraordinarily difficult. I had to get enough evidence to convince a jury that he had killed his previous wife without allowing him to do any harm to his present one. I figured out that the lady was safe enough until round about midnight, for he wouldn't dare to kill her until he was sure he could dispose of the body safely. The purser gave me Cabin 281, and told me the lie of 280, so I calculated that if I could make a peephole that wouldn't attract attention I could keep an eye on the lad and see what he was doing without allowing him to go too far.

"Well, I visited the cabin once disguised as a steward pretending to look for some lost luggage, but he fired me out in quick order. After that I decided to wait until he went to dinner and do my job then. I saw him go in, without his

wife, and as soon as he had had time to get settled I popped in to 280. I was prepared to take the wife into my confidence if it was absolutely necessary, but she was asleep and, as I had anticipated, drugged. I knew that he would not give the finishing touch until he was certain that he could carry out the rest of his plan, so I didn't bother about her much, but drilled a hole in a good position for observation, and after a general look round returned to my room and chiselled out my side of the loophole. It worked quite well too didn't it?

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"Very well indeed," replied Mr Peabody. "I had no idea that one could see so much through such a small hole." "It all depends upon how thin you get the partition," said Thesiger. And I got it as thin as I could. And I didn't get it done any too soon either, for my lad returned right after dinner. He came in, glanced at his wife, and then rang for a steward and gave an order. Presently some dinner was brought on a tray, which he took in at the door. He ate some of the stuff himself and threw the rest out of the porthole, and then, after a decent interval, he summoned the steward again and had the tray removed. After that he opened his wife's wardrobetrunk and spent the evening going through her things. He did it pretty thoroughly, I can tell you. He got a good deal of cash-I saw him stow