The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation

e question he took a leisurely look at the questioner. He saw before him a tall, good-looking, irreproachably attired man of from thirty to thirty-five years

of great mental activity which was just arriving at boiling-point. Everything about his movements and gestures denoted it-the way in which he removed his hat, laid aside his stick and gloves, ran his fingers through his d

re! Sit you down, Mr. Fullaway. Will you take anything?-it's a lon

answered Fullaway, obviously surprised by th

en there wasn't a chance of it. Aye-and what might this be that

olid face, elevated his well-marked eyebrows and shook his head. T

ur cousin had valuables on him

my cousin had on hi

im dead in his room," r

s just what I should

thing

most leapt

"Nothing more than you would h

the table, giving hi

find if you'd found him as I foun

was being changed into an attentive eagerness. He himself thrust his hand into his breast po

"I don't know you, but I gather that you knew

, and I've done business with him for

ed Allerdyke. "An

ent-an intermediary,

ivate sales a good deal

tures, curiosities, jew

Mr. Allerdyke, on bot

do know and you'll tell me all you know. When I searched my cousin for papers, I found this wire from you-

ered Fullaway.

s are they?" a

arter of a million,

? Dol

laughed d

dred and fifty thousand pound

he had th

egan to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was

ehalf?" ask

ss, who wished to find a purchaser for

ad that property on him when he landed here last night and it wasn't-as it

that he might be robb

ther for a while. Then Allerdyke laid

he said quietly. "Let's hear it all-then we

llow me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter of million pounds. Wants money to clear off mortgages on her son's estate, and set him going again. Do you know of any one likely to buy in one lot? Can arrange to bring over myself for buyers' inspection if chance of immediate good sale. James Allerdyke.' Now, as soon as

Allerdyke, producing the me

il last Thursday, May 8th, when I received this cablegram, sent, you see, from Christiania. In it he says: 'Expect reach Hull Monday night next. Shall come London next day. Arrange meeting with your man. Have got all goods.' Now those last four words, Mr. Allerdy

n to him, and with Fullaway's messages in reply. Eventually he put all the papers together, arranging them in sequence. He laid

Nastirsevitch?" he ask

alty

a what it does in England. A Prince there, I think, is some sort of nobleman, like your dukes and earls, and so on, here. But, anyway, the Princess Nasti

e shook

t was a bit in James's, though. D

ds-I know that. I also happen to know that she'd one son by her marriage, of whom she's passionately fond. And I read this thing in this way: I guess the old Prince's estates (he's dead,

d his lips and

lion's worth of goods of that sort to a man whom she couldn't kn

And," he added, with emphasis, "there, Mr. Allerdyke, are those four words, sent from Christiania, 'Have got all g

ay which he could not understand, distasteful to him. Somehow-he did not know why, nor at that moment try to think why-he resented the fact that

?" he suddenly asked, stopping in his walk to and fro.

," answered Fullaway. "She and I being fellow Americans, the subject in

e did go across to Russia a good deal, and no doub

e had those things on him when he came here last night? You do? Very well, then, he's been murdered by some

your other question-is there no clue to anything? you forget-I don't know

his chair neare

can make aught out of it-they always say you Yankees have sha

pt of James Allerdyke's wireless message. And Fullaway listened in silence, taking eve

an-Miss Celia Lennard-

solutely n

woman who'd stolen two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth of stuff from an hotel would wire b

t-supposing that she i

-and must-find her at

t was she doing in J

ve an

emanded A

makes friends, especially with women. My idea is that if this Miss Lennard went into his room last night it was to be shown the Princes

tapped at the sitting-

Or