They were smaller, and the edges looked fresher, that was all.

We asked Vincent to what he attributed them, and he replied that it must have been a bite of some animal, perhaps a rat, but for his own part, he was inclined to think it was one of the bats which are so numerous on the northern heights of London.

"Out of so many harmless ones," he said, "there may be some wild specimen from the South of a more malignant species.

Some sailor may have brought one home, and it managed to escape, or even from the Zoological Gardens a young one may have got loose, or one be bred there from a vampire.

These things do occur, you, know.