It was a deeply disappointing one to me. My vision of the enraged woman in her leopard costume engaged in a murderous plot against a sinister blackmailer faded as I listened. This harmless, middle-aged woman, living quietly on her income in a good neighbourhood, and amusing herself with animal pets and such artistic and intellectual society as was within her reach, failed altogether to come up to the portrait my imagination had drawn. Tarleton folded up the report and replaced it in his pocket. “You and I will call on this lady presently, and see if we can find out something more.” I wondered what we should find. I was wondering still when the physician’s car drew up before a house in the pleasant little square named after Chelsea’s most famous resident since the time of Sir Thomas More. The house was only distinguished from its neighbours by an air of dinginess which seemed due to neglect. In spite of the two servants kept by the owner or tenant, there was a lack of neatness both outside and inside. The steps looked in need of scrubbing, and the paint on the door was disfigured with blisters. The door was opened to Tarleton’s vigorous knock and ring by a housemaid who had evidently not changed her dress since her morning’s work was done, and the hall into which we passed was more like an ill-kept lumber-room than the ordinary entrance to a lady’s house. The explorer had evidently left many treasures picked up on his travels which his sister had taken no great pains to arrange to the best advantage. Savage weapons of various kinds were nailed up anyhow on the walls, one hiding another. Horns of different strange animals, either deer or oxen, surmounted such doors as we could see. Our feet were entangled in a draggled buffalo skin spread on the floor. The maiden who let us in took no notice of our trouble in following her, and offered no apology for the untidiness of the surroundings. She led the way upstairs to the first landing and threw open the door of a front room which was no doubt dignified with the title of drawing-room. “I’ll tell the missus you’re here.” With this ungracious promise, and without suggesting that we should sit down, she shut us in and left us. Tarleton glanced round him with a humorous expression. “I am reminded of what someone said of a famous explorer--‘Sir ---- is admirably qualified to deal with savages because he is just as savage as they are.’ Captain Armstrong seems to have shared the same qualification with his sister, judging from her household.”