He imagined that some secret society, some implacable organization, was on Douglas's track, which would never rest until it killed him.

Some remarks of his had given him this idea; though he had never told him what the society was, nor how he had come to offend it.

He could only suppose that the legend upon the placard had some reference to this secret society.
"How long were you with Douglas in California ?" asked Inspector MacDonald.
"Five years altogether." "He was a bachelor, you say ?" "A widower." "Have you ever heard where his first wife came from ?" "No, I remember his saying that she was of German extraction, and I have seen her portrait.

She was a very beautiful woman.

She died of typhoid the year before I met him." "You don't associate his past with any particular part of America ?" "I have heard him talk of Chicago.