Who could dream that back of this display of mingled childishness and audacity there lay hidden purpose, intellect, and a keen knowledge of human nature.  Not the two men who listened to this seemingly irresponsible chatter.  To them she was a child to be humoured and humour her they did.  The dainty feet which had already found their way to that gloomy staircase were allowed to ascend, followed it is true by those of the officer who did not dare to smile back at the reporter because of the brother’s watchful and none too conciliatory eye.

At the stair head she paused to look back.

“I don’t see those horrible marks which the papers describe as running all along the lower hall and up these stairs.”

“No, Miss Strange; they have gradually been rubbed out, but you will find some still showing on these upper floors.”

“Oh! oh! where?  You frighten me—­frighten me horribly!  But—­but—­ if you don’t mind, I should like to see.”

Why should not a man on a tedious job amuse himself?  Piloting her over to the small room in the rear, he pointed down at the boards.  She gave one look and then stepped gingerly in.

“Just look!” she cried; “a whole string of marks going straight from door to window.  They have no shape, have they,—­just blotches?  I wonder why one of them is so much larger than the rest?”

This was no new question.  It was one which everybody who went into the room was sure to ask, there was such a difference in the size and appearance of the mark nearest the window.  The reason—­ well, minds were divided about that, and no one had a satisfactory theory.  The detective therefore kept discreetly silent.

This did not seem to offend Miss Strange.  On the contrary it gave her an opportunity to babble away to her heart’s content.

“One, two, three, four, five, six,” she counted, with a shudder at every count.  “And one of them bigger than the others.”  She might have added, “It is the trail of one foot, and strangely, intermingled at that,” but she did not, though we may be quite sure that she noted the fact.  “And where, just where did the old wallet fall?  Here? or here?”

She had moved as she spoke, so that in uttering the last “here,” she stood directly before the window.  The surprise she received there nearly made her forget the part she was playing.  From the character of the light in the room, she had expected, on looking out, to confront a near-by wall, but not a window in that wall.  Yet that was what she saw directly facing her from across the old-fashioned alley separating this house from its neighbour; twelve unshuttered and uncurtained panes through which she caught a darkened view of a room almost as forlorn and devoid of furniture as the one in which she then stood.

When quite sure of herself, she let a certain portion of her surprise appear.

“Why, look!” she cried, “if you can’t see right in next door!  What a lonesome-looking place!  From its desolate appearance I should think the house quite empty.”