n't mean to say that you have found the jewels!"

"No such good fortune as that yet," the detective answered quietly,
"only the empty casket;" and having opened the box, he handed it to
the attorney.

"Where did you find this?" the latter inquired.

"Fished it out of the lake."

"Ah-h! I should like to know when."

"While you were snoring this morning."

"Great Scott! They'll catch a weasel asleep when they find you
napping! But, by George! this rather confirms my theory about that
woman getting possession of the jewels and hiring Brown to help her,
doesn't it?"

Without replying, Merrick handed over the revolver which had been
brought to light that morning.

"Where did you get this rusty thing? Was it in the lake, also?"

The detective nodded affirmatively, and Mr. Whitney examined the
weapon in some perplexity.

"Well, I must say," he remarked at length, "I don't see what
connection this has with the case. The shooting was done with
Hugh Mainwaring's own revolver; that was settled at the inquest-"

"Pardon me! It was only 'settled' that the revolver found lying
beside him was his own."

The attorney stared as Merrick continued, at the same time producing
from his pocket the revolver in question, "This, as you are
doubtless aware, is a Smith and Wesson, 32 calibre, while that,"
pointing to the rusty weapon in Mr. Whitney's hands, "is an old
Colt's revolver, a 38. On the morning of the murder, after you and
the coroner had gone, I found the bullet for which we had searched
unsuccessfully, and from that hour to this I have known, what before
I had suspected, that this dainty little weapon of Mr. Mainwaring's
played no part in the shooting. Here is the bullet, you can see for
yourself."

Mr. Whitney gazed in silent astonishment as the detective compared
the bullet with the two weapons, showing conclusively that it could
never have been discharged from the familiar 32-calibre revolver.

"Well, I'll be blessed if I can see what in the dickens that
revolver of Mainwaring's had to do with the affair, anyway!"

"Very easily explained when you once take into consideration the
fact that the whole thing was an elaborately arranged plan, on the
part of the murderer, to give the affair an appearance of suicide.
One glance at the murdered man convinced me that the wound had
never been produced by the weapon lying at his side. That clue
led to others, and when I left that room with you, to attend the
inq