Marvels And Mysteries

TO BE USED AGAINSTH IM . . 217 A Travelling Companion-The Haunted Man. VIII. THE WORDS OF A LITTLE CHILD . 256 The Mother and Daughter-The Father-The United Family-The Orphan. IX. How HE PASSED . 276 Mr. Stanbroughs Dream-Mr. Lansbergs Ex planation. MARVELS AND MYSTERIES THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE I. THE PORTMANTEAU MR. BIDDER had a telegram in his hand. Here it is Come up at once. Stone, Scotlaand Yard. Mr. Bidder was the senior partner in the firm of Bidder, Tuxwell, and Harris, of Birkenhead. A confidential clerk - one Raymond Hastie-had been discovered in an extensive system of embezzlement. Mr. Hastie had disappeared, and with him some necessary books and a considerable sum in cash as well. The affair was in the hands of the police, and the above curt telegram had been just received from that well-known officer, George Stone, of Scotland Yard. Mr. Bidder left for London almost immediately after its receipt. He journeyed by the train which leaves Liverpool at 4.5 p. m., and is due at Euston at half-past eight. He took with him a black portmanteau. It was one of tolerable size. He was a spruce gentleman, and as he might be detained in town for a day or two he thought it would be as well to go provided. In his first-class compartment there was but one other passenger. This was a slight, weedy-looking gentleman, who was enveloped in a voluminous overcoat which was obviously not of English manufacture. The afternoon was dull, there was more than a suspicion of mist in the air but though it was cool, it was still not cold enough for the average Britisher to sit muffled to the chin in a curiously shaped garment made of Irish frieze, apparently about an inch in thickness. Mr...