characters having recently been
seen.

Malcolm Sage asked a number of questions, to which he received more
or less impatient replies. The inspector was convinced that the
robbery was the work of the same man who had got away with Mrs.
Comminge's jewels, and he was impatient with anyone who did not
share this view.

From the police station Malcolm Sage went to The Painted Flag, where,
having ordered lunch, he got through to the Twentieth Century
Insurance Corporation, and made an appointment to meet one of the
assessors at Home Park at three o'clock.

CHAPTER X A LESSON IN DEDUCTION

I

Mr. Grimwood, of the firm of Grimwood, Galton & Davy, insurance
assessors, looked up from the list in his hand. He was a shrewd
little man, with side-whiskers, pince-nez that would never sit
straight upon his aquiline nose, and an impressive cough.

He glanced from Malcolm Sage to young Glanedale, then back again to
Malcolm Sage; finally he coughed.

The three men were seated in Sir Roger Glanedale's library awaiting
the coming of Lady Glanedale.

"And yet Mr. Glanedale heard nothing," remarked Mr. Grimwood
musingly. "Strange, very strange."

"Are you in the habit of sitting smoking at your bedroom window?"
enquired Malcolm Sage of Glanedale, his eyes averted.

"Er--no, not exactly," was the hesitating response.

"Can you remember when last you did such a thing?" was the next
question.

"I'm afraid I can't," said Glanedale, with an uneasy laugh.

"Perhaps you had seen something that puzzled you," continued Malcolm
Sage, his restless fingers tracing an imaginary design upon the
polished surface of the table before him.

Glanedale was silent. He fingered his moustache with a nervous hand.
Mr. Grimwood looked across at Malcolm Sage curiously.

"And you were watching in the hope of seeing something more,"
continued Malcolm Sage.

"I----" began Glanedale, starting violently, then he stopped.

"Don't you think you had better tell us exactly what it was you
saw," said Malcolm Sage, raising a pair of gold-rimmed eyes that
mercilessly beat down the uneasy gaze of the young man.

"I--I didn't say I saw anything."

"It is for you to decide, Mr. Glanedale," said Malcolm Sage, with
an almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders, "whether it is
better to tell your story now, or under cross-examination in the
witness-box. There you will be under oath, and the proceedings will
be public."

At that moment La