"You drove a foreigner--a Japanese--to the mortuary in Paddington last night?" said Ayscough, plunging straight into business, after telling the man who he was. "I saw him--just a glimpse of him--in your cab, and I took your number. Now, where did you first pick him up?" "Outside the Underground, at King's Cross," replied the driver promptly. This was precisely what Ayscough had expected; so far, so good; his own prescience was proving sure. "Anything wrong, mister?" asked the driver. "There may be," said Ayscough. "Well--you picked him up there, and drove him straight to the mortuary?" "No--I didn't," said the man. "We made a call first. Euston. He went in there, and, I should say, went to the left luggage office, 'cause he came back again with a small suit-case--just a little 'un. Then we went on to that mortuary." Euston! A small suit-case! More facts--Ayscough made notes of them. "Well," he said, "and when you drove away from the mortuary, where did you go then?" "Oxford Circus," answered the driver, "set him down--his orders--right opposite the Tube Station--t'other side of the street." "Did you see which way he went--then?" enquired Ayscough. "I did. Straight along Oxford Street--Tottenham Court Road way," said the driver, "carrying his suitcase--which it was, as I say, on'y a little 'un--and walking very fast. Last I see of him was that, guv'nor." Ayscough went away and got back to more pretentious regions. He was dead tired and weary with his night's work, and glad to drop in at an early-opened coffee-shop and get some breakfast. While he ate and drank a boy came in with the first editions of the newspapers. Ayscough picked one up--and immediately saw staring headlines:-- THE PADDINGTON MYSTERIES. NEW AND STARTLING FEATURES. DIAMOND WORTH L80,000 BEING LOOKED FOR MURDER IN MAIDA VALE Ayscough laid down the paper and smiled. Levendale--if not dead--could scarcely fail to see that! CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO ONE O'CLOCK MIDNIGHT Five minutes after Ayscough had gone away with Dr. Mirandolet the hotel servant who had summoned him from Purdie's sitting-room knocked at the door for the second time and put a somewhat mystified face inside. "Beg pardon, sir," he said, glancing at Purdie, who was questioning Melky Rubinstein as to the events of the evening in their relation to the house in Maida Vale. "Two ladies outside, sir--waiting to see you. But they don't want to come in, sir, unless they know who's here--don't want to meet no strangers, sir." Purdie jumped to his feet, and putting the man aside looked into the dimly-lighted corridor. There, a few paces away, stood Zillah--and, half hidden by her, Mrs. Goldmark. "Come in--come in!" he exclaimed. "Nobody here but Andie Lauriston and Melky Rubinstein. You've something to tell--something's happened?" He ushered them into the room, sent the hotel servant, obviously in a state of high curiosity about these happenings, away, and closed the door.