第80章

The other nodded."Yes, I suppose you've had the case turned up?"Then, speaking very quickly, as if he wished to dismiss the subject from his own mind, and from that of his auditors, he went on:

"Four murders of the kind were committed eight years ago - two in Leipsic, the others, just afterwards, in Liverpool, - and there were certain peculiarities connected with the crimes which made it clear they were committed by the same hand.The perpetrator was caught, fortunately for us, red-handed, just as he was leaving the house of his last victim, for in Liverpool the murder was committed in a house.I myself saw the unhappy man - I say unhappy, for there is no doubt at all that he was mad " - he hesitated, and added in a lower tone-" suffering from an acute form of religious mania.

I myself saw him, as I say, at some length.But now comes the really interesting point.I have just been informed that a month ago this criminal lunatic, as we must of course regard him, made his escape from the asylum where he was confined.He arranged the whole thing with extraordinary cunning and intelligence, and we should probably have caught him long ago, were it not that he managed, when on his way out of the place, to annex a considerable sum of money in gold, with which the wages of the asylum staff were about to be paid.It is owing to that fact that his escape was.very wrongly, concealed - "He stopped abruptly, as if sorry he had said so much, and a moment later the party were walking in Indian file through the turnstile, Sir John Burney leading the way.

Mrs.Bunting looked straight before her.She felt - so she expressed it to her husband later - as if she had been turned to stone.

Even had she wished to do so, she had neither the time nor the power to warn her lodger of his danger, for Daisy and her companion were now coming down the room, bearing straight for the Commissioner of Police.In another moment Mrs.Bunting's lodger and Sir John Burney were face to face.

Mr.Sleuth swerved to one side; there came a terrible change over his pale, narrow face; it became discomposed, livid with rage and terror.

But, to Mrs.Bunting's relief - yes, to her inexpressible relief - Sir John Burney and his friends swept on.They passed Mr.Sleuth and the girl by his side, unaware, or so it seemed to her, that there was anyone else in the room hut themselves.

"Hurry up, Mrs.Bunting," said the turnstile-keeper; "you and your friends will have the place all to yourselves for a bit." From an official he had become a man, and it was the man in Mr.Hopkins that gallantly addressed pretty Daisy Bunting: "It seems strange that a young lady like you should want to go in and see all those 'orrible frights," he said jestingly.

"Mrs.Bunting, may I trouble you to come over here for a moment?"The words were hissed rather than spoken by Mr.Sleuth's lips.

His landlady took a doubtful step towards him.