The first of the series of curious happenings, which led to such a surprising and, indeed, extraordinary denouement, occurred on the twelfth of October. It was a Monday; about four-thirty in the afternoon. Madge Brodie was alone in the house. The weather was dull, a suspicion of mist was in the air, already the day was drawing in. Madge was writing away with might and main, hard at work on one of those MSS. with which she took such peculiar pains; and with which the editors for whom they were de

Madge had been taken so wholly unawares that for a moment she remained stock-still--and voiceless. Then she followed the woman to the door. "You have come to do what?" "I've come to see the house." "And pray who are you?" "What affair is that of yours? Don't I tell you I've come to see the house?" "But I don't understand you. What do you mean by saying you've come to see the house?" For only answer the woman, turning her back on her, walked another step or two along the little passage. She excla

Ella and Jack eyed each other. Madge took refuge in a chair, conscious of a feeling of irritation at her weakness now that the provocation had passed. Ella regarded her curiously. "What's the matter with you, Madge? What's happened?" "It's nothing--only that horrible woman has upset me." "Who is she? and what's she been doing? and what's she want?" "I don't know who she is, or what she wants, or anything at all about her. I only know that she's prevented me getting anything for your tea." "That'

Madge was asleep almost as soon as she was between the sheets, and it seemed to her that as soon as she was asleep she was awake again--waking with that sudden shock of consciousness which is not the most agreeable way of being roused from slumber, since it causes us to realise too acutely the fact that we have been sleeping. Something had woke her; what, she could not tell. She lay motionless, listening with that peculiar intensity with which one is apt to listen when woke suddenly in the middl

The next morning, information was given to a passing policeman of the events of the night, and in the course of the day an officer came round from the local station to learn particulars. Madge received him in solitary state; she had refused Ella's offer to stop away from business to keep her company, declaring that for that day, at any rate, she would be safe from undesirable intruders. The officer was a plain-clothes man, middle-aged, imperfectly educated, with the stolid, matter-of-fact, rathe

"Go," said Ella, as she hastened from the room, "and open the door, while I go upstairs and take my hat off." Madge did as she was told. There were two persons at the door--Jack Martyn and another. "This," said Jack, referring to his companion, "is a friend of mine." It was dark in the passage, and Madge was a little flurried. She perceived that Jack had a companion, and that was all. "Go into the sitting-room, I'll bring you a lamp in a minute. Ella has gone to take her hat off." Presently, ret

"I don't know," he began, "if Martyn has told you that by profession I am a barrister." "No," said Jack, as he shook his head, "I have told them nothing to your credit." Graham smiled; the smile lighting up his features, and correcting what was apt to be their chief defect, a prevailing sombreness. "I am a barrister--one of the briefless brigade. One morning, about fourteen months ago, I left London for a spin on my bicycle. It was the long vacation; every one was out of town except myself. I th

"And is that all the story?" asked Ella, for Mr. Graham had paused. "All of it as it relates to Ballingall. So far as he was concerned, it brought his history up to date." "And what became of him?" "He was tried at the Surrey Sessions. There was practically no defence--for, of course, I could not urge on his behalf the wild story he had told me. All I could do was to plead extenuating circumstances. He was found guilty, and got twelve months." "And then?" "Then I came in--that was my first brief

She had placed her hand against a portion of the wainscotting which was about level with her breast. As, in her excitement, she had unconsciously pressed it upwards, the panel had certainly moved. Between it and the wood below there was a cavity of perhaps a quarter of an inch. "Push it! Push it higher!" This was Jack. Apparently that was just what Madge was endeavouring to do, in vain. "It won't move. It's stuck--or something." Mr. Graham advanced. "Allow me, perhaps I may manage." She ceded to

'There was no burglar. The night was undisturbed; and the next day was, for both, a busy one. The morning post brought Madge an intimation from a publisher to whom she had submitted one of her MSS., that he would be obliged if, when she was in town, she would call on him, so that she might discuss with him terms for its publication. That business-like memorandum made her heart beat faster; sent the blood coursing quickly through her veins; added a sparkle to her eyes. This, after all, was the so

"Mr. Graham!" she exclaimed. "Really, I do believe that if I had been asked what thing I most desired at this particular moment, I should have answered--you!" Graham's sombre features were chastened by a smile. "That's very good of you." "Look here!" Laying one hand against his arm, with the other she pointed at the sitting-room window. His glance followed her finger-tips. "Who's that?" "That's what I should very much like to ascertain." "I don't quite follow you. Do you mean that you don't know

It was while they were seated at table that Bruce Graham told them of the result of his investigations. Although, for some reason, the subject had not been mentioned when Madge and he had been alone together, that young lady showed herself alert and eager enough then. Nor, in that respect, was Ella behind her friend, while Martyn concealed an interest which was probably equal to theirs under ponderous attempts at jocularity. It was Jack who brought him to the point. "If the honourable and learne

"Well," inquired Martyn, when Graham? had finished, "what is the situation now?" "First of all," struck in Madge, "how about the will?" "As regards the will, I do not hesitate to say that it is as sound and valid a declaration of the testator's wishes as has been admitted to probate--Mr. Hurley's testimony removes all doubt upon that point. A man has a right to do what he will with his own--and that is all Mr. Ossington has done." "How does it effect our right of search?" "That is another questi

What she saw, and what they saw, spoke eloquently of the engrossed attention with which they had watched the work of destruction being carried on. So absorbed had they been in Bruce Graham's proceedings that, actually without their knowledge, a burglarious entry had been all but effected into the very room in which they were. There was the proof before them. The window had been raised, the blind and curtains pushed away, and a man's head and shoulders thrust inside. When Ella's exclamation calle

When he looked up, it was timidly, doubtfully, as if fearful of what he might see. He glanced about him anxiously from side to side, as if in search of something or some one. "Tom!--Tom!" he said, speaking it was difficult to say to whom. He paused, as if for an answer. When none came, he drew himself upright gradually, inch by inch. They noticed how his lips were twitching, and how the whole of his body trembled. He passed his hand over his eyes, as a man might who is waking from a dream. Then

Instinctively Ella drew closer to Jack, nestling at his side, as if for the sake of the near neighbourhood. Graham advanced towards Madge, placing himself just at her back, with a something protective in his air--as if he designed to place himself in front of her at an instant's warning. While Ballingall moved farther towards the window, with that in his bearing which curiously suggested the bristling hairs of the perturbed and anxious terrier. And all was still--with that sort of silence which

She stood, for a second, with the handle of the open door in her grasp--as if she was glad of its support to aid her stand. Then, with a quick glance backwards, as of pleading to the one who exercised over her so strange a spell, she tottered from the room. She continued speaking as she went, as if deprecating the other's wrath. "I shall be all right--in a moment--if you don't--hurry me at first. I'm only slow because--I'm a little tired. It'll soon go, this tired feeling, Tom--and I'll be sure-

Was it imagination? Or was it fact? Did some one or something really pass from the room, causing in going a little current of air? With startled faces each put to the other an unspoken query. Which none answered. The woman lay there, motionless, her exceeding stillness seeming accentuated by the sudden silence which filled the room. Bruce Graham, moving forward, took her up in his arms, as if she were but a feather's weight. His knife fell from her nerveless fingers, tumbling to the floor with s

Yes--the woman was dead. Ballingall had gone--and the fortune was found. Put in that way, it was a curious sequence of events. Indeed, put in any way, there could be no doubt about the oddity of the part which the woman had played. Medical examination clearly showed that death had come to her from natural causes. She must, the doctor said, have been within a hand's-breadth of death for, at any rate, the last twelve months. He declared that every vital organ was hopelessly diseased. Asked if the

And the fortune? This remark may be made--that had they not found it when they did there would very shortly have been nothing left to find. Mr. Thomas Ossington had chosen for the treasure-chest a simple opening in the wall, to which access had originally been gained by touching a spring. This spring had been concealed under what had probably been a picture of a dog's head; the fifth alternating dog's head on the right-hand side of the bedroom door. When you pressed it a door flew open. But this