Why should not a man on a tedious job amuse himself? Piloting her over to the small room in the rear, he pointed down at the boards. She gave one look and then stepped gingerly in. “Just look!” she cried; “a whole string of marks going straight from door to window. They have no shape, have they,--just blotches? I wonder why one of them is so much larger than the rest?” This was no new question. It was one which everybody who went into the room was sure to ask, there was such a difference in the size and appearance of the mark nearest the window. The reason--well, minds were divided about that, and no one had a satisfactory theory. The detective therefore kept discreetly silent. This did not seem to offend Miss Strange. On the contrary it gave her an opportunity to babble away to her heart’s content. “One, two, three, four, five, six,” she counted, with a shudder at every count. “And one of them bigger than the others.” She might have added, “It is the trail of one foot, and strangely, intermingled at that,” but she did not, though we may be quite sure that she noted the fact. “And where, just where did the old wallet fall? Here? or here?” She had moved as she spoke, so that in uttering the last “here,” she stood directly before the window. The surprise she received there nearly made her forget the part she was playing. From the character of the light in the room, she had expected, on looking out, to confront a near-by wall, but not a window in that wall. Yet that was what she saw directly facing her from across the old-fashioned alley separating this house from its neighbour; twelve unshuttered and uncurtained panes through which she caught a darkened view of a room almost as forlorn and devoid of furniture as the one in which she then stood. When quite sure of herself, she let a certain portion of her surprise appear. “Why, look!” she cried, “if you can’t see right in next door! What a lonesome-looking place! From its desolate appearance I should think the house quite empty.” “And it is. That’s the old Shaffer homestead. It’s been empty for a year.” “Oh, empty!” And she turned away, with the most inconsequent air in the world, crying out as her name rang up the stair, “There’s Arthur calling. I suppose he thinks I’ve been here long enough. I’m sure I’m very much obliged to you, officer. I really shouldn’t have slept a wink to-night, if I hadn’t been given a peep at these rooms, which I had imagined so different.” And with one additional glance over her shoulder, that seemed to penetrate both windows and the desolate space beyond, she ran quickly out and down in response to her brother’s reiterated call. “Drive quickly!--as quickly as the law allows, to Hiram Brown’s office in Duane Street.” Arrived at the address named, she went in alone to see Mr. Brown. He was her father’s lawyer and a family friend.