"Then I'll have to look over the files myself. What a bore!"
He went into the waiting-room and began listlessly to turn the sheets. He had not gone far before Valeska heard a low whistle. Running up to him, she saw him reading a news item under the following headings: "Aged Woman Killed in Subway Station. Run Over by Down-town Express After Falling on Track in View of Crowd."
"Look at that!" he exclaimed. "This happened at a quarter to three o'clock yesterday. The mysterious lady might easily have been at the Fourteenth-Street station at the time of the accident."
"And what does that prove?"
"Nothing yet! but it's a chance for a clue; a queer coincidence, at any rate. I'll take a think, when I have leisure."
He went back to the studio, and, after he had finished reading the palm of his first client, Valeska entered with the list:
Audubon
Barclay
Beekman
Broad
Bryant
Chelsea
City Island
Columbus
Cortland
Franklin
Gramercy
Hanover
Harlem
John
Kingsbridge
Lenox
Madison Sq.
Marble
Melrose
Morning Side
Murray Hill
Orchard
Plaza
Rector
Riverside
Schuyler
Spring
Stuyvesant
Tremont
Westchester
Williamsbridge
Worth
Astro glanced it over, and penciled it as he talked. "We'll first strike out all the stations obviously not in the residence districts where the lady would be likely to live. We may leave out Beekman, Barclay, Broad, City Island, Franklin, Cortland, John, Hanover, Orchard, Rector, and Worth. That leaves us still nine-
