THE SILENCING OF SAM STAY There was a criminal in London who was watched day and night.

It was no new experience to Sam Stay to find an unconcerned-looking detective strolling along behind him; but for the first time in his life the burglar was neither disconcerted nor embarrassed by these attentions.
The death of Thornton Lyne had been the most tragic blow which had ever overtaken him.

And if they had arrested him he would have been indifferent.

For this hang-dog criminal, with the long, melancholy face, lined and seamed and puckered so that he appeared to be an old man, had loved Thornton Lyne as he had loved nothing in his wild and barren life.

Lyne to him had been some divine creature, possessed gifts and qualities which no other would have recognised in him.