Both were young, and (still according to Miss Butterworth) of sensitive temperament and unused to crime; for she was in a fainting condition when carried from the house, and he, with every inducement to self-restraint, showed himself the victim of such powerful emotion that he would have been immediately surrounded and questioned if he had not set his burden down in the vestibule and at once plunged with the girl into the passing crowd.

Do you think you can find them, Sweetwater ?" "Have you no clews to their identity beyond this parasol ?" "None, Sweetwater, if you except these few faded rose leaves picked up from the floor of Mr.Adams's study." "Then you have given me a problem, Mr.Gryce," remarked the young detective dubiously, as he eyed the parasol held out to him and let the rose-leaves drop carelessly through his fingers.

"Somehow I do not feel the same assurances of success that I did before.

Perhaps I more fully realize the difficulties of any such quest, now that I see how much rests upon chance in these matters.

If Miss Butterworth had not been a precise woman, I should have failed in my former attempt, as I am likely to fail in this one.