"It's no mystery," said Drench quickly, "since you say that The Spider murdered this poor chap."
"The Spider himself is a mystery, and one which the police would give much to solve. I intend to hunt him down--not alone on account of my poor dead friend here, but because he so cleverly decoyed me out of the way."
"Ah, your pride is up in arms?"
"Well, yes; I suppose you can put it that way. But I wish to ask you two things, Mr. Inspector: first, that you will not reveal my trade as Nemo to anyone in society."
"Oh, I promise that easily, especially as I don't go into society, and I can guess that you want it kept quiet. And the second thing?"
"Will you permit me to place my services at your disposal?"
The dexterous way in which Vernon put his request as a favour to be granted pleased the Inspector, especially as he knew from what he had heard of Nemo that such services would be of value. "I shall be very pleased to let you work with me, Mr. Vernon," he said cordially. "What do you propose to do first, may I ask?"
"This house in West Kensington is an empty one, and must have been taken by The Spider for my temporary prison. I must ascertain from the landlord who took it, and thus we may learn something about the looks of The Spider."
"You think he took the house himself: applied to the landlord, that is?"
"Yes, and no; he may have done so, or one of his gang may have rented the house. But if we can catch the person who _did_ see the landlord, we may learn something about The Spider, if indeed the tenant was not the man himself."