"Why America?" "Because he spent some time there. He only returned from the States early last year. His sister has not seen him for years, and a rare old row they had when he turned up. He had not much money, so she helped him, and he settled down for a time in the same mansions as herself." "Who told you all this?" "Mrs. Hillmer, and a precious lot of trouble she gave me. She is a clever woman that." "It was rather too bad to pester her about it, poor lady." "I only followed your lead, sir." This was so true that Claude changed the conversation. "What sort of man is Corbett? Have you his description?" "Yes. Here it is." Mr. White produced a copy of the _Police Gazette_, a publication never seen by the public, but of a large circulation among the police of the United Kingdom. The details were fairly accurate as to Mensmore's personal appearance, but there was no photograph. Oddly enough, Bruce was pleased on noting this serious deficiency. "You did not secure his picture?" "No. Mrs. Hillmer declared that she had not a single photograph of her brother in her possession." "Did she--tell you his real name?" the barrister had almost said, but he deflected the question. "Did she give you any hint as to a possible cause for this apparently unnecessary crime?" "Not a word." "Then you did not mention Lady Dyke to her?" "No. Sir Charles has always implored me to keep his wife's name out of my inquiries until it became absolutely impossible to conceal it in view of a public prosecution. He wants to know definitely when that time comes." "Why?" The detective did not reply for a moment. When he spoke he leaned forward and subdued his voice. "I am as sure as I am sitting here, sir, that Sir Charles will not live if any disgrace should come to be attached to his wife's memory." "Do you mean that he will kill himself?" "I do. He has changed a great deal since this affair happened. He is not the same man. He appears to be always mooning about her. And people say that they were not so devoted to one another when she was alive." Again did the barrister switch off their talk from an unpleasant topic. "This description of Corbett is not much use," he said. "It applies to every athletic young Englishman of good physique and gentlemanly appearance." "Quite true. I don't depend on that for his arrest, but it will be valuable for identification. 'Blue eyes, light brown hair, fresh, clear complexion, well-modelled nose and chin.' Some of these things can be changed by tricks, but not all. For instance, there would be no use in smoking a man with black eyes and irregular features." "'Smoking' him?" "Oh, that's our way of putting it. Following him, it means." "Suppose the French police don't succeed in catching him?" "We will get him at Raleigh Mansions. He is sure to think that Lady Dyke's fate has never been determined, and he will return when the inquiry has blown over, to all appearance."