CHAPTER III.--THE MASTER MIND.
Some four days later the Chief Commissioner of the South Australian Police was sitting alone in his room, at headquarters, in Victoria-square.
He looked tired and anxious, and his face was puckered in a frown. He was going through some papers and he signed from time to time.
He was a small spare man of wiry physique, about fifty years of age, and his hair was growing grey about the temples. He had keen, shrewd eyes, and a good chin, but the general effect of strength in his face was marred to some extent by a certain weakness of the mouth. He had a small moustache, spikily waxed at the ends. He was well, indeed almost foppishly dressed, and he sported a large diamond pin in his cravat. His hands were well cared for and white.
A police constable knocked an
