All this time there had been no reference to the Domino Club. I think we were both rather eager to learn something about that. But Miss Neobard didn’t appear to need prompting. She came to the subject of her own accord. “At last we almost ceased to see anything of him. He went out night after night, and didn’t come home till the early morning. He was a strong man, but his health began to suffer, and I think he was taking to drink latterly. At one time he kept nothing in the house, but lately there was brandy in a cupboard, and I have seen him going to it in the morning as soon as he came down. This was after he had gone to that abominable club.” “The Domino Club?” my chief put in quietly. “Yes, I dare say you wonder how I came to know of it. Perhaps you think I oughtn’t to have taken any notice of what was going on. It was my mother’s business, really, but she was determined to see nothing, and I had to protect her.” The explanation was given with a touch of defiance. Was it the true one? Was it solely zeal on her mother’s behalf that had inspired the girl of nineteen or twenty to play the part of a detective? Or had other motives mingled with the avowed one? A touch of feminine curiosity, perhaps? A subtle temptation to look down into the gulf in which the man was disappearing? Or else?... She saw no need to tell us how she had obtained her knowledge, apparently. I didn’t think her the kind of girl to employ an agent. She was quite capable, I felt sure, of searching her step-father’s papers, or following him secretly. Her object, as far as we were concerned, was evidently to inculpate his patients even more than himself. “It was the women,” she repeated with bitterness, “who dragged him into it. They wanted a place in which they could have all the excitement of a night club without the risk of meeting low-class people. There was a Mrs. Worboise----” I glanced at my chief as I recalled the No. 21 of the appointment-book, but his lips were firmly compressed----“I feel convinced that she provided some of the money. But there were others, too, plenty of them.” I was thankful that she stopped there without mentioning more names. My chief also seemed to think that she had said enough for the present. “Very well, Miss Neobard. I am sure that you have acted for the best in giving me this information, and I’m very much obliged to you. Now suppose we drive round to the Club for you to identify the body.” The sight of Evans, the doctor’s chauffeur, in front dried up the girl’s flow of speech, and the drive was a silent one. Arrived at Vincent Studios I noticed that Tarleton stood back to let the young lady go in front, and that she took her way without hesitation towards the door bearing the name of Loftus, A.R.A. The policeman we had left in charge opened the door to us, and my chief again tested Miss Neobard’s knowledge by waiting for her to precede us. But this time the test failed.