r. But such a theft happened three months ago, when the metal
was being unloaded from a German steamer at Southampton, and my dear
friend Spenser Hale ran down the thieves very cleverly as they were
trying to dissolve the marks off the bars with acid. Now crimes do not
run in series, like the numbers in roulette at Monte Carlo. The
thieves are men of brains. They say to themselves, "What chance is
there successfully to steal bars of silver while Mr. Hale is at
Scotland Yard?" Eh, my good friend?'

'Really, Valmont,' said Hale, taking another sip, 'sometimes you
almost persuade me that you have reasoning powers.'

'Thanks, comrade. Then it is not a _theft_ of silver we have now to
deal with. But the American election was fought on the _price_ of
silver. If silver had been high in cost, there would have been no
silver question. So the crime that is bothering you arises through the
low price of silver, and this suggests that it must be a case of
illicit coinage, for there the low price of the metal comes in. You
have, perhaps, found a more subtle illegitimate act going forward than
heretofore. Someone is making your shillings and your half-crowns from
real silver, instead of from baser metal, and yet there is a large
profit which has not hitherto been possible through the high price of
silver. With the old conditions you were familiar, but this new
element sets at nought all your previous formulae. That is how I
reasoned the matter out.'

'Well, Valmont, you have hit it. I'll say that for you; you have hit
it. There is a gang of expert coiners who are putting out real silver
money, and making a clear shilling on the half-crown. We can find no
trace of the coiners, but we know the man who is shoving the stuff.'

'That ought to be sufficient,' I suggested.

'Yes, it should, but it hasn't proved so up to date. Now I came
tonight to see if you would do one of your French tricks for us, right
on the quiet.'

'What French trick, Monsieur Spenser Hale?' I inquired with some
asperity, forgetting for the moment that the man invariably became
impolite when he grew excited.

'No offence intended,' said this blundering officer, who really is a
good-natured fellow, but always puts his foot in it, and then
apologises. 'I want someone to go through a man's house without a
search warrant, spot the evidence, let me know, and then we'll rush
the place before he has time to hide his tracks.'

'Who is this man, and where does he liv