obtained old directories of London, and discovered that there was one Schottler, who had kept a public-house, called The Ship and Punchbowl, in High Street, Wapping.  In that direction, therefore, inquiries were instituted.  The Schottlers had, it was found, gone and left no trace, but it was easy to instruct a detective to inquire after old neighbours, to show them a portrait of the Claimant, and to ask if any one in that locality recognised the features.  At last the man prosecuting inquiries found himself in the Globe public-house in Wapping, the landlady of which hostelry at once declared the carte de visite to be a portrait of a mysterious individual of huge bulk who had visited her on the night of the previous Christmas day, stayed an hour in her parlour, and made numerous inquiries after old inhabitants of Wapping.  His inquiries included the Schottlers, and he had particularly wanted the address of the family of the late Mr. George Orton, a butcher in the High Street, who answered the description of an old “neighbour of the Schottlers.”  The Christmas day referred to was the very day of the Claimant’s arrival in England, and the landlady of the Globe was positive that the portrait represented her visitor, whoever he might have been.  Moreover, she informed the gentleman that, struck by his inquiries after the Ortons, she had scanned her mysterious visitor’s features closely, and observed, “Why, you must be an Orton; you are very like the old gentleman.”  Three daughters of old George Orton were then applied to, but they declared that the portrait had no resemblance to any brother of theirs.  Neighbours, however, had perceived that these persons, who had been extremely poor, had suddenly shown signs of greatly improved circumstances.  Further inquiry led to the discovery that they had a brother named Charles, “a humpbacked man,” who had been a butcher in a small way, in partnership with a Mr. Woodgate, in Hermitage Street, Wapping.  He had recently dissolved partnership rather suddenly, but he had previously confided to Mr. Woodgate the curious information that he had a brother just come home from Australia, who was entitled to great property, and who had promised him an allowance of “L5 a month,” and L2000 “when he got his estates.”  When, after some trouble, Charles Orton was discovered, he showed signs of being disposed to explain the mystery “if the solicitors” would promptly “make it worth his while;” but in the very midst of the inquiry he suddenly vanished from the neighbourhood, and for a long while all trace of him was lost.  Meanwhile, the Claimant had, by some mysterious means, become aware that these inquiries were in progress, for he wrote at this period to his confidential friend Rous, the landlord of the Swan, as follows:—­“We find the other side very busy with another pair of sisters for me.  They say I was born in Wapping.  I never remember having been there, but Mr. Holmes tell me it a very respectiabel part of London.”  Shortly afterwards