nder her feet.

"But how could he do it?" she asked.

"Quite easily. And throw all the blame on Mr. Steel. Look at the evidence
he had ready to his hand against the latter. The changed cigar-case would
come near to hang a man. And Van Sneck was in the way. Steel goes out to
meet you or some of your friends. All his household are in bed. As a
novelist he comes and goes as he likes and nobody takes any heed. He goes
and leaves his door on the latch. Any money it is the common latch they
put on thousands of doors. Henson lets himself into the house and coolly
waits Van Sneck's coming. The rest you can imagine."

Chris had no reply for a moment or two. Rawlins's suggestion had burst
upon her like a bomb. And it was all so dreadfully, horribly probable.
Henson could have done this thing with absolute impunity. It was
impossible to imagine for a moment that David Steel was the criminal. Who
else could it be, then, but Reginald Henson?

"I'm afraid this has come as a shock to you," Rawlins said, quietly.

"It has, indeed," said Chris. "And your reasoning is so dreadfully
logical."

"Well, I may be wrong, after all," Rawlins suggested.

Chris shook her head doubtfully. She felt absolutely assured that Rawlins
was right. But, then, Henson would hardly have run so terrible a risk for
a little thing like that. He could easily have silenced Van Sneck by a
specious promise or two. There must be another reason for--

It came to Chris in a moment. She saw the light quite plainly.

"Mr. Smith," she said, eagerly, "where did you first meet Henson and
Van Sneck?"

"We first came together some eight years ago in Amsterdam."

"Would you mind telling me what your business was?"

"So far as I can recollect it was connected with some old silver--William
and Mary and Queen Anne cups and _jardinieres_. We had made a bit of a
find that we could authenticate, but we wanted a lot of the stuff,
well--faked. You see, Van Sneck was an authority on that kind of thing,
and we employed him to cut marks off small genuine things and attach them
to spurious large ones. On the whole, we made a very successful business
of it for a long time."

"You found Van Sneck an excellent copyist. Did he ever copy
anything for you?"

"No. But Henson employed him now and again. Van Sneck could construct a
thing from a mere description. There was a ring he did for Henson--"

"Was that called Prince Rupert's ring, by any chance?"

"That was the name of t