* It may be recalled that the _World’s_ accounts of the Bishop case were the envy of the other metropolitan newspapers. Sergeant Heath, though impartial in his statements of facts to the press, nevertheless managed to save several picturesque _bonnes-bouches_ for Quinan, and permitted himself certain speculations which, while having no news value, gave the _World’s_ stories an added interest and color. Vance, who was pacing sombrely up and down, gave voice to his troubled emotions. “It’s damnable, Markham—it’s the essence of unutterable evil. . . . Those children in the park—up early on their holiday in search of dreams—busy with their play and make-believe . . . and then the silencing reality—the awful, overpowering disillusion. . . . Don’t you see the wickedness of it? Those children found Humpty Dumpty—_their_ Humpty Dumpty, with whom they had played—lying dead at the foot of the famous wall—a Humpty Dumpty they could touch and weep over, broken and twisted and never more to be put together. . . .” He paused by the window and looked out. The mist had lifted, and a faint diffusion of spring sunlight lay over the gray stones of the city. The golden eagle on the New York Life Building glistened in the distance. “I say; one simply mustn’t get sentimental,” he remarked with a forced smile, turning back to the room. “It decomposes the intelligence and stultifies the dialectic processes. Now that we know Drukker was not the capricious victim of the law of gravity, but was given a helpin’ hand in his departure from this world, the sooner we become energetic, the better, what?” Though his change of mood was an obvious _tour de force_, it roused the rest of us from our gloomy apathy. Markham reached for the telephone and made arrangements with Inspector Moran for Heath to handle the Drukker case. Then he called the Medical Examiner’s office and asked for an immediate _post-mortem_ report. Heath got up vigorously, and after taking three cups of ice-water, stood with legs apart, his derby pulled far down on his forehead, waiting for the District Attorney to indicate a line of action. Markham moved restlessly. “Several men from your department, Sergeant, were supposed to be keeping an eye on the Drukker and Dillard houses. Did you talk to any of them this morning?” “I didn’t have time, sir; and, anyway, I figured it was only an accident. But I told the boys to hang around until I got back.” “What did the Medical Examiner have to say?” “Only that it looked like an accident; and that Drukker had been dead about ten hours. . . .” Vance interpolated a question. “Did he mention a fractured skull in addition to the broken neck?” “Well, sir, he didn’t exactly say the skull was fractured, but he did state that Drukker had landed on the back of his head.” Heath nodded understandingly. “I guess it’ll prove to be a fracture all right—same like Robin and Sprigg.”