er he had taken from
the dead man.

CHAPTER V. THE SCRAP OF PAPER

When Bryce, in his locked room, drew that bit of paper from his pocket,
it was with the conviction that in it he held a clue to the secret of
the morning's adventure. He had only taken a mere glance at it as he
withdrew it from the dead man's purse, but he had seen enough of what
was written on it to make him certain that it was a document--if such a
mere fragment could be called a document--of no ordinary importance.
And now he unfolded and laid it flat on his table and looked at it
carefully, asking himself what was the real meaning of what he saw.

There was not much to see. The scrap of paper itself was evidently a
quarter of a leaf of old-fashioned, stoutish notepaper, somewhat yellow
with age, and bearing evidence of having been folded and kept flat in
the dead man's purse for some time--the creases were well-defined,
the edges were worn and slightly stained by long rubbing against the
leather. And in its centre were a few words, or, rather abbreviations of
words, in Latin, and some figures:

In Para. Wrycestr. juxt. tumb.
Ric. Jenk. ex cap. xxiii. xv.

Bryce at first sight took them to be a copy of some inscription but his
knowledge of Latin told him, a moment later, that instead of being an
inscription, it was a direction. And a very plain direction, too!--he
read it easily. In Paradise, at Wrychester, next to, or near, the tomb
of Richard Jenkins, or, possibly, Jenkinson, from, or behind, the head,
twenty-three, fifteen--inches, most likely. There was no doubt that
there was the meaning of the words. What, now, was it that lay behind
the tomb of Richard Jenkins, or Jenkinson, in Wrychester Paradise?--in
all probability twenty-three inches from the head-stone, and fifteen
inches beneath the surface. That was a question which Bryce immediately
resolved to find a satisfactory answer to; in the meantime there were
other questions which he set down in order on his mental tablets. They
were these:

1. Who, really, was the man who had registered at the
Mitre under the name of John Braden?

2. Why did he wish to make a personal call on the
Duke of Saxonsteade?

3. Was he some man who had known Ransford in time
past--and whom Ransford had no desire to meet again?

4. Did Ransford meet him--in the Cathedral?

5. Was it Ransford who flung him to his death down
St. Wrytha's Stair?