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248 upon which were the words: "To defray the cost of my interment in Woking Cemetery."

I was at that moment crossing the room, when my eye caught a small ball of paper, which had been screwed up and flung into the fire-place.

I picked it up and on smoothing it out, found the words, written in a bold, round hand:

"Riddle:—The Wasp can no longer sting." Wills, to whom I handed it, read and re-read the cryptic words.

"I wonder what that means, doctor? Can this be the wasp?" he asked, glancing at the dead man. "Or did he wish to show his defiance of somebody known as 'The Wasp'—that he can no longer be stung by him!"

"'The Wasp' is perhaps some spiteful person," I remarked.

"Yes," replied the inspector; "there seems a good deal of mystery regarding this affair."

Both my companions made a tour of the bedrooms, and the attics upstairs, but discovered nothing else to attract their attention. Saunders was sent to the station to report the gruesome find.

When he had gone Wills unlocked the front-door, and then re-ascended with me to where the dead man lay.