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PROLOGUE.

The following advertisement appeared in the
Times of the 17th of June, 1845:

WANTED.—A few young men for a light genteel employment.
Address J. W., P. O.

In the same paper, of same date, in another column:

TOLET.—That commodious and elegant family mansion, No. 27
Limehouse Road, Pultneyville, will be rented low to a respectable
tenant if applied for immediately, the family being
about to remove to the continent.

Under the local intelligence, in another column:

Missing.—An unknown elderly gentleman a week ago left his
lodgings in the Kent Road, since which nothing has been heard
of him. He left no trace of his identity except a portmanteau
containing a couple of shirts marked “209, Ward.”

To find the connection between the mysterious disappearance
of the elderly gentleman and the anonymous
communication, the relevancy of both these
incidents to the letting of a commodious family

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mansion, and the dead secret involved in the three occurrences,
is the task of the writer of this history.

A slim young man with spectacles, a large hat,
drab gaiters, and a note-book, sat late that night with
a copy of the Times before him, and a pencil which
he rattled nervously between his teeth in the coffee-room
of the “Blue Dragon.”