He had seemed natural enough when he first appeared at the coroner's office in the early morning, and equally natural all through the lengthy conference which followed; but a half hour later, any one who knew him well,--any of his fellow detectives in New York; especially Mr.Gryce, who had almost fathered him since he came among them, a raw and inexperienced recruit--would have seen at first glance that his spirits were no longer at par, and that the cheer he displayed in manner and look was entirely assumed, and likely to disappear as soon as he found himself alone.
And it did so disappear.

When, at two o'clock, he entered the club-house grounds, it was without buoyancy or any of the natural animation with which he usually went about his work.

Each step seemed weighted with thought, or, at least, heavy with inner dissatisfaction.

But his eye was as keen as ever, and he began to use that eye from the moment he passed the gates.

What was in his mind?
Was he hunting for new clews, or was he merely seeking to establish the old?
The officers on guard knew him, by this time, and let him pass hither, thither, and where he would, unmolested.