The characters were a young man and a girl. The girl was extremely pretty and very pale. The man was the exact double of Frank Merrill. He was dressed in a rough tweed suit, and wore a soft felt hat with a fairly wide brim. But it was not the appearance of this remarkable apparition which startled the investigator. It was the attitude of the two people. The girl was evidently pleading with her companion. Saul Arthur Mann was too far away to hear what she said, but he saw the young man shake himself loose from the girl. She again grasped his arm and raised her face imploringly.
Mr. Mann gasped, for he saw the young man’s hand come up and strike her back into the house. Then he caught hold of the door and banged it savagely, walked down the stairs, and, turning, hurried away.
The investigator stood as though he were rooted to the spot, and before he could recover himself the fellow had turned the corner of the road and was out of sight. Saul Arthur Mann took off his hat and wiped his forehead. All his initiative was for the moment paralyzed. He walked slowly up to the gate and hesitated. What excuse could he have for calling? If this were Frank, assuredly his own views were all wrong, and the mystery was a greater mystery still.
His energies began to reawaken. He took a note of the number of the house, and hurried off after the young man. When he turned the corner his quarry had vanished. He hurried to the next corner, but without overtaking the object of his pursuit. Fortunately, at this moment, he found an empty taxicab and hailed it.
“Grimm’s Hotel, Jermyn Street,” he directed.
At least he could satisfy his mind upon one point.
XV
A Letter in the Grate
Grimm’s Hotel is in reality a block of flats, with a restaurant attached. The restaurant is little more than a kitchen from whence meals are served to residents in their rooms. Frank’s suite was on the third floor, and Mr. Mann, paying his cabman, hurried into the hall, stepped into the automatic lift, pressed the button, and was deposited at Frank’s door. He knocked with a sickening sense of apprehension that there would be no answer. To his delight and amazement, he heard Frank’s firm step in the tiny hall of his flat, and the door was opened. Frank was in the act of dressing for dinner.
“Come in, S. A. M.,” he said cheerily, “and tell me all the news.”
He led the way back to his room and resumed the delicate task of tying his dress bow.
“How long have you been here?” asked Mr. Mann.
Frank looked at him inquiringly.
“How long have I been here?” he repeated. “I cannot tell you the exact time, but I have been here since a short while after lunch.”
Mr. Mann was bewildered and still unconvinced.
“What clothes did you take off?”
It was Frank’s turn to look amazed and bewildered.
“Clothes?” he repeated. “What are you driving at, my dear chap?”
“What suit were you wearing today?” persisted Saul Arthur Mann.
Frank disappeared into his dressing room and came out with a tumbled bundle which he dropped on a chair. It was the blue suit which he usually affected.
“Now what is the joke?”
“It is no joke,” said the other. “I could have sworn that I saw you less than half an hour ago in Camden Town.”
“I won’t pretend that I don’t know where Camden Town is,” smiled Frank, “but I have not visited that interesting locality for many years.”
Saul Arthur Mann was silent. It was obvious to him that whoever was the occupant of 69 Flowerton Road, it was not Frank Merrill. Frank listened to the narrative with interest.
“You were probably mistaken; the light played you a trick, I expect,” he said.
But Mr. Mann was emphatic.
“I could have taken an oath in a court that it was you,” he said.
Frank stared out of the window.
“How very curious!” he mused. “I suppose I cannot very well prosecute a man for looking like me—poor girl!”
“Of whom are you thinking?” asked the other.
“I was thinking of the unfortunate woman,” answered Frank. “What brutes there are in the world!”
“You gave me a terrible fright,” admitted his friend.
Frank’s laugh was loud and hearty.
“I suppose you saw me figuring in a court, charged with common assault,” he said.
“I saw more than that,” said the other gravely, “and I see more than that now. Suppose you have a double, and suppose that double is working in collusion with your enemies.”
Frank shook his head wearily.
“My dear friend,” he said, with a little smile, “I am tired of supposing things. Come and dine with me.”
But Mr. Mann had another engagement. Moreover, he wanted to think things out.
Thinking things out was a process which brought little reward in this instance, and he went to bed that night a vexed and puzzled man. He always had his breakfast in bed at ten o’clock in the morning, for he had reached the age of habits and had fixed ten o’clock, since it gave his clerks time to bring down his personal mail from the office to his private residence.
It was a profitable mail, it was an exciting mail, and it contained an element of rich promise, for it included a letter from Constable Wiseman:
Dear Sir:
Re our previous conversation, I have just come across one of the photographs of the young lady—Sergeant Smith’s daughter. It was given to the private detective who was searching for her. It was given to my wife by her cousin,
