To Inspector French, Allguez, N.M.
Very sorry. Craig gave us slip after leaving depot. Niece disappeared from address given. No clues at present. When are you returning?
French swore softly for a moment. Then he dropped into a chair, exhausted.
“This,” he declared, “is our unlucky evening.”
3.
The woman who had just laid the cloth for a homely evening meal, smiled across at the girl who stood at the window.
“It’s all ready now directly your uncle comes home,” she announced. “Say, you never seem to tire of looking out of that window.”
The girl turned around with a smile. She was very young and dressed in deep mourning.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before, Mrs. Malony,” she said. “It was quite quiet where we lived in London, and here, with the street cars and the elevated railways and the clanging of bells, there never seems to be a moment’s peace.”
Mrs. Malony came to the girl’s side.
“Your poor uncle looks as though a little peace would do him good,” she remarked.