"The woman, now sobbing bitterly, drew her handkerchief from her pocket, and a piece of paper, which she undesignedly and unwittingly drew forth with it, fluttered to the ground. Only the sharp eyes of our reporter saw it, and he stooped and picked it up. He glanced at it without attracting the attention of the policeman, and what he saw both greatly astonished him and influenced his future course with respect to the woman. He felt instinctively that he held in his hand a thread, however slight and slender, in the Mystery of Monsieur Felix.
"Our readers will remember that in certain editions of the _Evening Moon_ we inserted an advertisement referring to the death of M. Felix, but lest the precise terms of that advertisement should be forgotten by them we reprint it here, to refresh their memory. The advertisement ran as follows:
"'The Strange Death of M. Felix, in Gerard Street, Soho. Persons who had private or other interviews with M. Felix between the hours of eight in the morning and twelve at night on the 16th of January, or who are in possession of information which will throw light upon the circumstances surrounding his death, are urgently requested to call at the office of the _Evening Moon_, at any time after the appearance of this advertisement. Liberal rewards will be paid to all who give such information, and the best legal assistance is offered by the proprietors of this journal, entirely at their own expense, to all, who may desire it and who are in any way interested in M. Felix's death.'
"Up to the present time the advertisement had been productive of no result of any value. A great many persons had called at our office respecting it, but they knew nothing that was likely to be of assistance to us; their aim was to obtain money without giving an equivalent for it. That the step we took, however, was not useless was proved by what our reporter now held in his hand. It was the advertisement, cut carefully from our journal, pasted upon a sheet of note-paper, and framed, as it were, in clear lines of red ink. Surely it was not without reason that the woman had been thus painstaking with this extract. Surely there must be some connecting link between her and M. Felix, whose death and subsequent disappearance were still enveloped in mystery. Thus thought our reporter the moment his eyes fell upon the advertisement.