Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/318

 "My uncle in Italy, he give it to me," the man protested.

They talked for ten minutes; but the man persisted in this story. Giving up the attempt, Astro was about to return to the laundry, when his eyes fell on the basket the man had been carrying. He stopped and took off a few pieces of kindling, then, after a quick look at the Italian, took something from under the pieces of wood. It was a human skull.

"Perhaps you'll tell me where you got this?" Astro demanded sternly.

The Italian's face brightened. "Oh, a littla boy, he geeve eet to me for ten cent," he said simply.

Astro turned to Valeska with a baffled expression. "In heaven's name what kind of place are we in, where babies play with dead hands and human skulls, to say nothing of giant opals hid in cots?"

"Yes, yes, a littla boy, on Washington Square, sure!" the man repeated.

Astro placed the skull on a shelf and regarded it attentively. For some moments he said nothing; then, shrugging his shoulders, he passed into the laundry. Valeska followed him.

"The man is lying, of course," she said. "But what a barefaced falsehood! Would anything be more improbable?"

"He's lying, it's true," said Astro; "but it may not be all false, nevertheless. We'll have to wait till we finish our examination." And with that, he walked out into the back yard.

The place was half-filled with clothes, drying. The ground was completely bricked over and surrounded by a high fence. On the farther side of this and be-