"Come, Doctor," he urged, leaning forward and placing his hand on my knee, "don't you think it would be better for all parties for you to tell me what you know? I am as anxious to shield the innocent as you can be. By withholding valuable information you may force me to put a young lady through a very trying and public ordeal, which I am sure might be easily spared her, if I only knew a few more facts of the case." This last argument decided me, and making a virtue of necessity I gave him a minute account of all I had seen and heard. When I came to describing the man's prolonged search Mr. Merritt nodded several times with great satisfaction. "Can't you tell me a little more how this man looked?" he eagerly inquired. "You must have seen him pretty clearly while he was moving around that lighted room. Had he any hair on his face?" "Well," I confessed, "it is a funny thing, but I can't for the life of me remember; I've tried to; sometimes I think he was clean shaven, and again I am sure he had a small moustache." The detective glared at me for a moment; it was difficult for him to forgive such aggravating lack of memory. To be given such an opportunity and to foozel it! He heaved a sigh of resignation as he inquired: "Can you remember how he was dressed?" "Oh, yes," I replied with alacrity, anxious to retrieve myself, "he had on a white shirt and dark trousers, and his sleeves were rolled back." "Did he close the windows before he left?" "Yes, and he pulled down the blinds also." "You are sure that you saw no one in the apartment resembling Miss Derwent?" "Quite sure; the woman I saw was taller and had flat, black hair." "What do you mean by 'flat'?" "Why, nowadays girls wear their hair loose; it bulges away from their faces; but hers lay tight to her head in a flat, black mass," I explained. I then harped on the probability of the return of Miss May's prodigal brother, and suggested the possibility that the dark-haired woman might be his wife. "Well, well, Doctor! This is all very interesting. The story of the brother, especially. You see, I had already discovered that a man had spent many hours in her apartment----" "How did you find that out?" I interrupted. "Oh, quite easily," rejoined the detective; "as soon as all the excitement was over yesterday, I made McGorry open the Derwent's apartments for me. You may imagine what a fuss he made about it. Well anyhow he got me----" "But why did you want to get in?" I inquired; "did you suspect her?"