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For ten weary days Hugh Henfrey had lived in the close, frowsy-ston, a small, old-fashioned place, once a residence of well-to-do persons, but now sadly out of repair

Its occupier was a worthy, and someizened,naeon who had been killed at the Battle of the Marne She was about sixty, and suffered badly froe for one maid, a stout, matronly person called Eht to have been, and the cuisine left much to be desired

Still, it appeared to be a safe harbour of refuge for certain strange persons who came there, men who looked more or less decentwas certainly that of crooks That house in the back street of old-world Kensington, a place built before Victoria ascended the throne, was undoubtedly on a par with the flat of the Reveccas in Genoa, and the thieves' sanctuary in the shadow of the cathedral at Malines

Adversity brings with it queer co a entlemen and had taken up the criminal life as an up-to-date profession They all spoke of The Sparroith awe; and they all wondered what his next great coup would be

Hugh becareatest and raced the annals of our tied there for a day, a couple of days, or uests who came suddenly, and who disappeared just as quickly, were one and all loud in their adh could discover nobody who had actually seen the arch-thief in the flesh

On the Tuesday night Hugh had had a frugal and badly-cooked meal with threethe day After supper therose and left the rooan to chatter openly about a little "deal" in diamonds in which they had been interested The "deal" in question had been reported in the newspapers on the previous , namely, how a Dutch diamond dealer's office in Hatton Garden had been broken into, the safe cut open by the most scientific means, and a very valuable parcel of stones extracted

"Harry Austen has gone down to Surrey to stay with Molly"

"Molly? Why, I thought she was in Paris!"