CHAPTER II.--THE HOUNDS OF THE LAW
The afternoon following upon that early morning when he had been dragged from his comfortable bed to go to Avon Court, Chief Inspector Charles Stone was closeted with his colleague Chief Inspector Elias Carter in the former's private room in Scotland Yard.
Carter was cockney-born and, tall and lanky and with high cheek bones, he looked out upon the world with shrewd grey eyes from under very bushy brows. Stone had been detailing to him all the happenings of the previous night at Sir George Almaine's house in Hampstead and he had listened intently, interjecting with a remark only very occasionally and asking very few questions. He knew Stone well enough to be quite sure that nothing of any importance would have escaped the observation of the big stout ma
