Filled with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat.

The inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the room in which Mr.St.Clair had last been seen.

There was no sign of him there.

In fact, in the whole of that floor there was no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, it seems, made his home there.

Both he and the Lascar stoutly swore that no one else had been in the front room during the afternoon.