But no--he thrust the thought, the temptation, from him. Again a
convulsive look of rage came over his face. He had remembered his
landlady. How could the woman whom he had treated so generously have
betrayed him to his arch-enemy?--to the official, that is, who had
entered into a conspiracy years ago to have him confined--him, an
absolutely sane man with a great avenging work to do in the world--
in a lunatic asylum.

He stepped out into the open air, and the curtain, falling-to behind
him, blotted out the tall, thin figure from the little group of
people who had watched him disappear.

Even Daisy felt a little scared. "He did look bad, didn't he, now?"
she turned appealingly to Mr. Hopkins.

"Yes, that he did, poor gentleman--your lodger, too?" he looked
sympathetically at Mrs. Bunting.

She moistened her lips with her tongue. "Yes," she repeated dully,
"my lodger."



CHAPTER XXVII

In vain Mr. Hopkins invited Mrs. Bunting and her pretty stepdaughter
to step through into the Chamber of Horrors. "I think we ought to
go straight home," said Mr. Sleuth's landlady decidedly. And Daisy
meekly assented. Somehow the girl felt confused, a little scared by