"You keep the files?" "Yes." "Who is the most important creditor filed under G? Lawrence?" The girl shook her head emphatically. "Why, he only owed about fifty pounds," she said. "There were none of importance under G, except Garraway, the Hon. Claude Garraway and Count de Guise." "Ah! Count de Guise. So quaint a name. He is rich, yes?" "Awfully rich. He is selling all the things in his flat and going abroad for good. There is an advertisement in to-day's paper. His pictures and things are valued at no less than thirty thousand pounds. I don't know how his business stood with Mr. Graham; latterly, it had not passed through my hands at all." "And his address?" "59b Bedford Court Mansions." "And I must see Lawrence too. Where shall I find him?" "At Bart's--St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He is studying there. You are sure to find him there to-night. He is engaged there, I know, up to ten o'clock." Dr. Lepardo took the girl's hand and pressed it soothingly. "Do not faint; be a brave girl," he said. "Your employer was killed shortly after you left." Deathly pale, she sat watching him. "By--whom?" "By Severac Bablon, so it is written on his desk. It is unfortunate that Lawrence was there to-night; but I--I am your friend, my child. Are you going to faint--no?" "No," said the girl, smiling bravely. "Then good-night." He pressed her hand again--and was gone. CHAPTER XXIII M. LEVI The art of detection, in common with every other art, produces from time to time a genius; and a genius, whatever else he may be, emphatically is _not_ a person having "an infinite capacity for taking pains." Such masters of criminology as Alphonse Bertillon or his famous compatriot, Victor Lemage, whose resignation so recently had stirred the wide world to wonder--achieve their results by painstaking labours, yes, but all those labours would be more or less futile without that elusive element of inspiration, intuition, luck--call it what you will--which constitutes genius, which alone distinguishes such men from the other capable plodders about them. A brief retrospective survey of the surprising results achieved by Dr. Lepardo within the space of an hour will show these to have been due to brilliant imagination, deep knowledge of human nature, foresight, unusual mental activity, and--that other capacity so hard to define. Dr. Lepardo was studying the following paragraph marked by Miss Maitland: FOR SALE.--Entire furniture, antique, of large flat, comprising pieces by Sheraton, Chippendale, Boule, etc. Paintings by Greuze, Murillo, Van Dyck, also modern masters. Pottery, Chinese, Sevres, old English, etc. A collection of 500 pieces of early pewter, etc., etc., etc. The whole valued at over L30,000. The torpedo-like car had dropped him at Bedford Court Mansions, and, shuffling up the steps into the hall, he addressed himself to the porter. "Ah, my friend, has the Count de Guise gone out again?"