Mr. White was actually inclined to preserve silence while they walked to Victoria Street. The events of the preceding hour had not exactly conduced to the maintenance, in the eyes of his brother officer, of that pre-eminent sagacity which he invariably claimed. His companion rubbed in this phase of the matter by saying: "I should think, Jim, you will give Raleigh Mansions wide berth for some time to come, after making two bad breaks there." But it was no part of Bruce's scheme that the detective should be rendered desperate by repeated failures. "It is not Mr. White's fault," he said, "that these errors have occurred. They are rather the result of his pertinacity in leaving no clue unsolved which promises to lead to success. When this case ends, if ever it does end, I feel sure he will admit that he has never before encountered so much difficulty in unravelling the most complex problems within his experience." "That is so," chimed in the senior detective. "The thing that beats me in this affair is the want of a beginning, so to speak. One would imagine it the work of a lunatic if Lady Dyke herself had not contributed so curiously to the mystery of her disappearance." "There you are, White; that is the true scent. Find the motive and we find the murderer, if Lady Dyke was wilfully put to death." "_If_ she was, Mr. Bruce? Have you any doubt about it?" "There cannot be certainty when we are groping in the dark. But the gloom is passing; we are on the eve of a discovery." At Bruce's residence White's colleague left him. Soon the barrister and the policeman were sitting snugly before a good fire. There Claude took him step by step through each branch of his inquiry as it is known to the reader. He omitted nothing. The discovery of Jane Harding and of Mensmore, the latter's transactions with Dodge & Co., his dramatic _coup_ at Monte Carlo and its attendant love episode--all these were exhaustively described. He enlarged upon Mrs. Hillmer's anxiety when the tragedy became known to her, and did not forget Sir Charles Dyke's amazement at the suggestion that his old playmate might prove to be responsible for the death of his wife. He produced the waxen moulds of the piece of iron found on the body at Putney, and the ornamental scroll from which it had been taken. At this bit of evidence Mr. White's complacency forsook him. Thus far he had experienced a feeling of resentment against Bruce for having concealed from him so much that was material to their investigation. But when he realized that a powerful link in the chain of events had all along been placidly resting before his eyes his distress was evident, and the barrister came to his rescue.