Hersham sprang forward, and grasped the arm of Fanks to prevent his leaving the room. "Think of what you are about," he gasped. "Ask her nothing, you hear me, nothing." "That rests with yourself. Tell me what you know and--" "I know nothing," said Hersham, and turned away with an obstinate look. "Good!" said Fanks, putting on his hat. "We now understand one another. I shall find out all without troubling you. Good-bye. And you may thank your stars that I do not arrest you on suspicion." "I swear that I am innocent." "I know that, else I would have had you in custody by this time. But you are screening another person. Anne Colmer, for instance." "She knows nothing." "I shall judge of that for myself," retorted Fanks, and left the room. In Acacia Road the detective hailed a cab and drove to the nearest telegraph office. It had occurred to him that Hersham might attempt to communicate with Anne; and he was resolved to checkmate such a move. To this end he sent a wire to the head of the rural police at Taxton-on-Thames, instructing him to delay if possible all letters and telegrams which might come to Miss Colmer. Thereby he hoped to prevent Hersham warning the girl. Arriving at New Scotland Yard, he detailed a man to watch Hersham, and sent him up to Acacia Road. A glance at "Bradshaw" assured him that to reach Taxton-on-Thames, Hersham would have to start from Waterloo. Thither he sent another detective, to keep an eye on the trains. Therefore, by letter, by telegram, and by railway, he had stopped Hersham from communicating with Anne Colmer. After taking these precautions he saw Crate. "I am going to Taxton-on-Thames at three o'clock," he said. "Are you going to look for the woman who directed the envelope, Mr. Fanks?" Fanks stretched out his legs, and began fiddling with his ring. "That is just what is puzzling me, Crate," observed he. "I have told you of my conversation with Mr. Hersham. Well, unless he is deceiving me, Mrs. Conner, is a paralytic. She could not have directed that envelope; yet, going by the writing, I'll swear that an elderly woman penned the address. If not Mrs. Colmer--an obvious impossibility--who wrote it?" "Anne Colmer," said Crate, promptly. "No. For disguise, she would rather have adopted a masculine hand." "Mrs. Boazoph?" "If Mrs. Boazoph had been traced to Taxton-on-Thames I should say yes; if the letter had been sent from Mere Hall I should have said yes. But," added Fanks, with emphasis, "as it did not come from Mere Hall, and Mrs. Boazoph has nothing to do with Taxton-on-Thames, I am not inclined to suspect the lady." "Then there is nobody else." "There must be somebody else; and the somebody else committed the crime." Crate thought. "Do you think that the negro sent that star?" he asked. "I feel perfectly certain that the negro had nothing to do with the star." "But we have proved conclusively that a negro killed Fellenger."