“A woman had been murdered by one of that species of fiends, half criminal, half madman, who spring up from time to time. The murderer in this case, after killing his victim, had torn away certain portions of the body. In the course of his devilish work, he had cut into and mutilated a portion of the intestines. My investigations discovered that a short time before the murder the woman had eaten a certain kind of food. From other circumstances learned by me I was convinced that one of a certain number of men had slain her. I had these men brought before me and caused the lodgments under their finger-nails to be carefully scraped and preserved in separate packages. A scientific examination of the contents of one package disclosed the presence of human blood corpuscles, together with certain minute particles, the chemical resultants of that particular food of which the woman had partaken shortly before her death. In a word, I had the murderer.” “Skilful, decidedly skilful,” commented the King. “It is precisely for such skill that we have urgent need at the present time.” “In what direction, Sire?” “Here--at our Court. We have decided to retain you in our service and we count upon your fidelity and the exercise of your uttermost skill.” Kearns bowed. The ancestor of the distinguished Baron Gold and the numerous other great men who had been wont to invoke his services in the olden time had adopted a tone of supplication rather than of patronage. However, he accepted the change as part and parcel of the new order of things and Mr. Thomas Kearns was a man to adapt himself to any and all existing circumstances. “Listen, then,” said the King. “For some time past our peace has been disturbed--nay, the safety of our very person threatened--from some unknown source which all the energy of our Secret Service has been unable to discover. We look to you to discover that source--to run to earth these arch-enemies of our peace and safety.” “Will you furnish me with further details, Sire?” “It was some months ago,” continued the King, “when we awoke one morning to find a paper on the table beside our bed. It is needless to recount what this paper contained. Suffice that it held demands and threats. You will realize the importance of this happening, for he who had the power to deposit that paper had also the power to have inflicted more material injury.” Kearns bowed his assent. “Our sleeping apartment,” resumed the King, “is some fifty feet from the ground. There are sentinels on the roof of the palace and in the grounds below. The sentinels were trebled and other precautions taken and yet again this occurrence came to pass.” “Another document,” questioned Kearns, “of the same character, deposited under the same circumstances?”