The Bradys pondered over the case long and deeply.
The ruins of the fire were visited.
An inspection seemed to verify the fact of the murder.
In the ashes there were found the bones of an unknown victim.
So nearly consumed were they that it was not easy to say whether they were those of a man or a woman.
But it was safe to assume the latter.
But beyond this, all was a wall of mystery. The detectives learned that the inmates of the tenement were an Irish family by the name of Roche.
They were honest working people and had been absent for the night on a visit to an adjoining town.
It was easily proved that they had no connection whatever with the crime.
Thus matters remained in statu quo when one day the detectives dropped into the office of the Chief of the Secret Service.