"So Mrs. Boazoph knew of your address without your telling her," said the detective, stretching out his hand for the letter. "Queer! If I am not mistaken I--By Jove!" "What is the matter?" "Wait. Wait," said Fanks, in great excitement. "Let me read the letter first. My word, here is a discovery." "What discovery?" asked Hersham, staring at the letter. But Fanks paid no attention to him. He was already devouring the communication from the landlady of the Red Star, which ran as follows:-- "Dear Mr. Edward Hersham,--Come and see me at once. Important business, and, in the meantime, hold no communication with the man who calls himself Fanks. I will explain when we meet.--Yours, Louisa Boazoph." "I wish you had shown me this before," said Fanks. "I was so anxious about what I had to confess, that I forgot, Fanks. Is it important?" "I should think so. You must see her at once, and tell me what she says. We may find the key to the whole business in her conversation." "Do you think Mrs. Boazoph has anything to do with it?" For answer, Fanks got out the photograph of the dead Emma Calvert, and the envelope which had contained the red star. He pointed out the handwritings on both to Hersham. "You see that," he said, eagerly. "The handwriting on the back of the portrait, and that on the envelope are the same as that on your letter." "True enough," said Hersham, examining the three objects closely, "but what of that?" "Only this. That Mrs. Boazoph addressed the envelope, and enclosed the red cardboard star, which lured the late Sir Gregory Fellenger to his death on the evening of the twenty-first of June." CHAPTER XXV. AT MERE HALL, HANTS. Fanks was rather astonished when he learned that Mrs. Boazoph had contrived the lure which had drawn Fellenger to his death. He had given the landlady credit for more cleverly concealing her scheme, and that she should have carried out a plan so compromising, in so open a manner, seemed to him to be the height of folly. Nevertheless, he was pleased that he had discovered who had directed the fatal envelope; and he was still more pleased that Mrs. Boazoph had sent for Hersham. If possible he intended to learn her reason for seeking an interview, and to ascertain why she had fainted at the intelligence that Hersham was likely to be arrested for committing the crime. A true report of that conversation--and Fanks had no doubt that Hersham would repeat it faithfully to him--might afford the clue to the mystery. At the present moment Fanks was convinced that the landlady of the Red Star could unravel the riddle if she chose, and he was resolved to force her to do so. But here an element on which Fanks had not calculated came into play.