Anna the Adventuress

Brendon reappeared, followed by a tall thin man with a stubbly brown

moustache and restless grey eyes. The doctor nodded to him curtly.

"Good evening, Dorling," he said. "Before you do anything else I

should advise you to secure those charred fragments of paper from the

grate. I know nothing about this affair, but some one has been burning

documents."

The detective went down on his hands and knees. With delicate touch he

rescued all that was possible of them, and made a careful little

parcel. Then he stepped briskly to his feet and bent over the wounded

man.

"Shot through the lungs," he remarked.

The doctor nodded.

"Bad hemorrhage," he said. "I am going to fetch some things that will

be wanted if he pulls through the next hour. I found him lying like

this, the bleeding partly stopped by this scarf, else he had been dead

by now."

The doctor glanced towards Anna. Considering his convictions he felt

that his remark was a generous one. Anna's face however was wholly

impassive.

He took up his hat and went. The detective rapidly sketched the

appearance of the room in his notebook, and picked up the pistol from

under the table. Then he turned to Anna.

"Can you give me any information as to this affair?" he asked.

"I will tell you all that I know," Anna said. "My name is Anna

Pellissier, sometimes called Annabel. I am engaged to sing every

evening at the 'Unusual' music hall. This man's name is Montague

Hill. I saw him first a few months ago at Mrs. White's boarding-house

in Russell Square. He subjected me there to great annoyance by

claiming me as his wife. As a matter of fact, I had never spoken to

him before in my life. Since then he has persistently annoyed me. I

have suspected him of possessing a skeleton key to my apartments.

To-night I locked up my flat at six o'clock. It was then, I am sure,

empty. I dined with a friend and went to the 'Unusual.' At a quarter

past eleven I returned here with this gentleman, Mr. Brendon. As we

turned the corner of the street, I noticed that the electric light was

burning in this room. We stopped for a moment to watch it, and almost

immediately it was turned out. We came on here at once. I found the

door locked as usual, but when we entered this room everything was as

you see. Nothing has been touched since."

The detective nodded.

"A very clear statement, madam," he said. "From what you saw from the

opposite pavement then, it is certain that some person who was able to

move about was in this room only a minute or so before you entered

it?"

"That is so," Anna answered.

"You met no one upon the stairs, or saw no one leave the flats?"