He takes this black case
into the brougham, and he obviously brings it out again, for here it is.
Whatever has happened, he brings it out empty. Then he sends the
housekeeper for me. When at length I arrive, Denson has certainly gone,
but there was an opportunity for that while the housekeeper was absent
on the message to my office--_after_ all Samuel's agitation, and after
he had carried his case to and from the brougham."

"The whole thing is odd enough, certainly, and suspicious enough. Have
you found anything else?"

"Yes. Denson lives, or lived, in a boarding house in Bloomsbury. He has
only been there two months, however, and they know practically nothing
of him. To-day he came home at an unusual time, letting himself in with
his latchkey, and went away at once with a bag, but the accounts of the
exact time are contradictory. One servant thought it was before twelve,
and another insisted that it was after one. He has not been back."

"And the office boy--can't you get some information out of him?"

"He hasn't been seen since the morning. I expect Denson told him to take
a whole holiday. I can't find where he lives, at the moment, but no
doubt he will turn up to-morrow. Not that I expect to get much from him.
But I shan't bother. Unless Mr. Samuel will answer satisfactorily some
very plain questions I shall ask--and I don't expect he will--I shall
throw up the commission. He called, by the way, not long ago, but I was
out. We shall see him in the morning, I expect."

A look round Denson's office taught me no more than it had taught Hewitt
already. There were two small rooms, one inside the other, with ordinary
and cheap office furniture. It was quite plain that any man of ordinary
activity and size could have got out of the inner room into the corridor
by the means which Samuel suggested--through the hinged wall-light, near
the ceiling. Hewitt had meddled with nothing--he would do no more till
he was satisfied of the _bona fides_ of his client; certainly he would
not commit himself to breaking open desks or cupboards. And so, the time
for my attendance at the office approaching--I was working on the
_Morning Ph[oe]nix_ then, and ten at night saw my work begin--we shut
Denson's office, and went away.

III

In the morning I was awakened by an impatient knocking at my bedroom
door. Going to bed at two or three I was naturally a late riser, and
this was about nine. I scrambled sleepily out of bed, and t