t looking for
a cat or a monkey; we were looking for a middle-aged gentleman."

"And am I to take it that your search over the rest of the house was
conducted in a similar manner?"

"Certainly. We looked into the rooms, but we did not search under the
beds or in the cupboards."

"Are all the rooms in the house in use as living or sleeping rooms?"

"No; there is one room on the second floor that is used as a store and
lumber-room, and one on the first floor that Mr. Hurst uses to store
trunks and things that he is not using."

"Did you look in those rooms when you searched the house?"

"No."

"Have you looked in them since?"

"I have been in the lumber-room since, but not in the other. It is
always kept locked."

At this point an ominous flattening became apparent in his lordship's
eyelids, but these symptoms passed when Mr. Heath sat down and
indicated that he had no further questions to ask.

Miss Dobbs once more prepared to step down from the witness box, when
Mr. Loram shot up like a jack-in-the-box.

"You have made certain statements," said he, "concerning the scarab
which Mr. Bellingham was accustomed to wear suspended from his
watch-guard. You say that he was not wearing it when he came to Mr.
Hurst's house on the twenty-third of November, nineteen hundred and
two. Are you quite sure of that?"

"Quite sure."

"I must ask you to be very careful in your statement on this point.
The question is a highly important one. Do you swear that the scarab
was not hanging from his watch-guard?"

"Yes, I do."

"Did you notice the watch-guard particularly?"

"No; not particularly."

"Then what makes you sure that the scarab was not attached to it?"

"It couldn't have been."

"Why could it not?"

"Because if it had been there I should have seen it."

"What kind of watch-guard was Mr. Bellingham wearing?"

"Oh, an ordinary sort of watch-guard."

"I mean was it a chain or a ribbon or a strap?"

"A chain, I think--or perhaps a ribbon--or it might have been a strap."

His lordship flattened his eyelids, but made no further sign and Mr.
Loram continued:

"Did you or did you not notice what kind of watch-guard Mr. Bellingham
was wearing?"

"I did not. Why should I? It was no business of mine."

"But yet you are quite sure about the scarab?"

"Yes, quite sure."

"You noticed that, then?"

"No, I didn't. How could I when it wasn't there?"

Mr. Loram paused and looked helplessly at the w