"You wait, sir, and I'll tell. To git a start in London requires money, and me and my son want fifty pounds to give us a start." "Indeed. I'm afraid I can't advance the money." "So you say now, sir; but when you know what fifty pounds 'ull buy, perhaps you will." Archie's curiosity was now fully aroused, owing to the significance of her words. There was evidently something important behind all this apparently idle preamble, and he waited with some anxiety as to what she was going to tell him. "You are engaged to Miss Pethram, sir, I'm told," said Mrs. Belk, abruptly. "Yes, I am. What then?" replied Maxwell rather haughtily, not liking his private affairs being mentioned by a complete stranger. Mrs. Belk bent forward in a mysterious manner, touched him on the knee, then flung herself back in her chair with a searching look. "Has she found out who killed her father?" "Good God!" Maxwell jumped to his feet with an ejaculation, and, one hand grasping the back of his chair, stood looking at the mean figure before him in silent amazement. "What do you mean?" he demanded in a stifled voice. The woman carried an obtrusive black leather bag, of no small size, with a metal clasp, and this she shook slowly at him as she replied to his question. "In here," she said, in her monotonous voice--a voice that neither rose nor fell, but kept on droning constantly in the same dreary monotone--"in here I have something which may lead to the discovery of the criminal." Maxwell gasped. Was chance going to reveal the secret which he had been so afraid was a secret for ever? He had been about to go down to Deswarth on an apparently hopeless quest, without anything to guide him to a conclusion; and lo! at the very time when he was starting, this woman appeared from the clouds with the asseveration that she knew something which would be a sure guide to the revealing of the mystery. "In that bag?" he said, mechanically, looking at it in a fascinated fashion. "In that bag?" With a cry of relief he advanced and stretched out his hands eagerly. "Give it to me! What is it? Give it to me?" The woman put the bag behind her back with a frown. "No," she answered, in the same passionless voice. "Nothing for nothing. I have told you what I wanted. Give me fifty pounds, and you shall have it." "But what is it?" "A clue to the man who committed the murder." "Give it to me at once!" "Certainly--when I get fifty pounds." Maxwell reflected. He was not a rich man, and fifty pounds was a great consideration to him. Still, in his search he would probably spend that amount, and by giving it to this woman he would perhaps learn the name of the criminal at once, so it would be better to save time by acceding to her demand, and thus arrest the assassin before he had time to leave the country. Therefore he made up his mind to give it to her, and secure the evidence she said was in the bag; but first he tried to find out exactly what that evidence was worth.