When I saw you at the Carlton Hotel, I told you exactly how much I knew of Mr.Hamilton Fynes." "My dear young lady," Inspector Jacks said, "I will not ask for your sympathy, for I am afraid I should ask in vain; but we are just now, we people at Scotland Yard, up against one of the most extraordinary problems which have ever been put before us.

We have had two murders occurring in two days, which have this much, at least, in common--that they have been the work of so accomplished a criminal that at the present moment, although I should not like to tell every one as much, we have not in either case the ghost of a clue." "That sounds very stupid of you," Penelope remarked, "but I still ask--" "Don't ask for a minute or two," the Inspector interrupted.

"I think I remarked just now that these two crimes had one thing in common, and that was the fact that they had both been perpetrated by a criminal of unusual accomplishments.

They also have one other point of similitude." "What is that ?" Penelope asked.
"The victim in both cases was an American," the Inspector said.
Penelope sat very still.

She felt the steely eyes of the man who had chosen his seat so carefully, fixed upon her face.
"You do not connect the two affairs in any way ?" she asked.
"That is what we are asking ourselves," Mr.Jacks continued.