Ravensdene Court

is superior height on Mr. Cazalette's eager face with a half-bored, half-tolera

bout the box?

y're small and faint, but if I get a good negative of them I can enlarge it. And I say again,

nd looked inside the lid. It was very plain that he saw nothing there but some-to him meani

k when you've done with it. We shall have to exhi

sy. A gardener's potting-table stood against the wall; on this, backed by a black cloth which he had brought from the hou

consequentially. "I'm an expert in photography, and I've got an enlarging

rs and rejoined the doctors and the police who were discussing the next thing to be done. That Quick had been murdered there was no doubt; there would have to be an inquest, of course, and for that purpose his body would ha

held there. Ever since I had first broken the news to him, he had been upset and nervous: I could see that he was one of those men who dislike fuss and publicity. He looked at me wit

evident that the man was not murdered for the sake of robbery,

ctor shoo

's one thing that's certain-the man's

button. That pocket had been turned inside out; so, too, had a pocket in the left hip of the trousers, corresponding to that on the right in which Quick had carried the revolver that he had shown to us at the inn. The waistcoat was

e'd that on him that his murderer was anxious to get. And the fact that the murderer l

" inquired

grimly. "And as he had, he'd have little difficulty in getting away. Probably he got an early morning train,

a servant to minister to the constables in the same fashion. Leaving him and his guests in the morning-room and refusing Mr. Cazalette's invitation to join him in his photographic enterprise, I turned into the big hall and there found Miss Rave

the very beginning of your visit!" she exclaimed. "Didn't it gi

rience," I answered. "But-I was not q

t?" she

nning risks by showing his money as foolishly as he did," I replied. "And

an extraordinary mystery! Is there no clue? I suppose he must really have

an extraordinary one, as you remark. We shall hear more. And, in the meantime-a much pleasanter thing-won't you show me round the

t books, pamphlets, and manuscripts by the cart-load, and it was very plain to me, as an expert, that the greater part of his possessions of these sorts had never even been examined. Before Miss Raven and I had spent an hour in going from one room to another I had arrived at two definite conclusions-one, that the dead man's collection of books and papers was about the most heterogeneous I had ever set eyes on, containing much of great value and much of none whatever; the other, that it would take me a long time to make a really careful and proper examination of it,

at was evidently designed to put us all on a friendly footing, "Dr. Lorrimore and I have been having

death with having no one you could talk to about curries and brandy-pawnees and things

ed the doctor. "I came

marked Miss Raven. "Doesn't it seem q

there was the faintest trace of silvery grey. A rather notable man, too, I thought, and one who was evidently scrupulous about his appearance-yet his faultlessly cut frock suit of raven black, his glossy linen, and smart boots

a white patient-and one doesn't count the rest. And-I bought this practice, knowing it to be one that would not make great demands on my time, so that I co

e time with me, when he wants company," sai

arked Dr. Lorrimore, with a sly glanc

st, his niece, and myself continued our investigations. These lasted until the lunch hour-they afforded us a

required nothing else. And I did not see him again until late that afternoon, when, as the rest of us were gathered about the tea-table in the hall, before a cheery fire, he sudd

you brought your photographic investi

man's odd fancy about the scratches on the lid of the tobacco-box. "We'

ng glance over the

nor how far my investigations have gone. Ye must just die a bit more, Miss Raven, and maybe when

us, and that his bantering tone was assumed as a cloak. It was clear that we were not going t

e of a purpose, Cazalette?" he suggest

experiment is in course of process. But I'll say this, as a stude

shuddered

did it is not hang

ok his head with

at did it had put a good many miles between himself and his vict

asked, feeling a bit restive under the old f

nse. Mine's a nature that's full of both tho

anation of the incident of the yew-hedge. He had certainly secreted a piece of blood-stained, mud-discoloured linen in that hedge for an hour or so. Why? Had it anything to do with the crime? Had he picked it up on the beach when he went for his dip? Why was he so secret

simony, have returned to recover the discarded article. Again, he might be in possession of some clue, to which his tobacco-box investigations were ancillary-altogether, it was best to leave him alone. He was clearly deeply interested in the murder of Salter Quick, and I had gat

murder. The tide, which had been up in the morning, was now out, though just beginning to turn again, and the beach, with its masses of bare rock and wide-spreading deposits of sea-weed, looked bleak and desolate in the uncertain grey light. But it was not without life-two

old him how it would be. You heard me! A man carrying gold about him like

ed. "And his watch and other things.

p exclamation. He was

ard that, then

dered, here, early this morning. Of course, I concluded that it had been for the sake of his money-that he'd been pulling it out in some public-

rs are of the opinion that he was murdered-here-yesterday evening: that his body had been lying here, just above high-water mark, since,

was, he said, a coast village or two further along the head

knew the lie of the land. And, according to

e came here! He'd fallen in with somebody, somewhere, that

vensdene Court. The dusk had fallen by that time, and the house was lighted when I came back. Entering by the big hall, I saw Mr

spector wired to the police there this morning, telling them to communicate with his brother

or, who placed a telegra

on riverside near Saltash at an early hour thi