"

"Certainly. What is it?" Hurd spoke quite sympathetically, for even
though he was a detective he was a human being with a kindly heart.

"Tell her how sorry I am, and that I'll come and see her as soon as I
can leave this confounded hospital. Thanks for your kindness, Mr. Hurd.
Now, what do you wish to know? Oh, yes--about the opal serpent, which,
as you say, and as I think, seems to be at the bottom of all the
trouble. Listen," and Paul detailed all he knew, taking the story up to
the time of his accident.

Hurd listened attentively. "Oh," said he, with a world of meaning, "so
Mr. Grexon Hay was with you? Hum! Do you suppose he pushed you into the
road on purpose?"

"No," said Paul, staring, "I'm sure he didn't. What had he to gain by
acting in such a way?"

"Money, you may be sure," said Hurd. "That gentleman never does anything
without the hope of a substantial reward. Hush! We'll talk of this when
you're better, Mr. Beecot. You say the brooch was lost."

"Yes. It must have slipped out of my pocket when I fell under the wheels
of that machine. I believe there were a number of loafers and ragged
creatures about, so it is just possible I may hear it has been picked
up. I've sent an advertisement to the papers."

Hurd shook his head. "You won't hear," he said. "How can you expect to
when you know the brooch was used to seal the dead man's lips?"

"I forgot that," said Paul, faintly. "My memory--"

"Is not so good as it was." Hurd rose. "I'll go, as I see you are
exhausted. Good-bye."

"Wait! You'll keep me advised of how the case goes?"

"Certainly, if the doctors will allow me to. Good-bye," and Hurd went
away very well satisfied with the information he had obtained.

The clue, as he thought it was, led him to Wargrove, where he obtained
useful information from Mr. Beecot, who gave it with a very bad grace,
and offered remarks about his son's being mixed up in the case, which
made Hurd, who had taken a fancy to the young fellow, protest. From
Wargrove, Hurd went to Stowley, in Buckinghamshire, and interviewed the
pawnbroker whose assistant had wrongfully sold the brooch to Beecot many
years before. There he learned a fact which sent him back to Mr. Jabez
Pash in London.

"I says, sir," said Hurd, when again in the lawyer's private room, "that
nautical gentleman of yours pawned that opal serpent twenty years ago
more or less."

"Never," said the monkey, screwing up his face and chewing.

"Yes, inde