ed nature in which the manager had been, or was
concerned. It might have something to do with the missing jewels; it
might be mixed up with Frederick Hollis's death; it might be that
Horbury and Joseph Chestermarke were jointly concerned in--but there he
was at a loss, not knowing or being able to speculate on what they could
be concerned in. Strange beyond belief it was, nevertheless, that old
Rob Walford should think the shadow he had seen to be the missing man's!
Supposing----

The door of Joseph Chestermarke's laboratory suddenly opened, letting
out a glare of light across the lawn in front. And Joseph came out,
carrying a sort of sieve-like arrangement, full of glowing ashes. He
went away to some distant part of the garden with his burden; came back,
disappeared; re-appeared with more ashes; went again down the garden.
And each time he left the door wide open. A sudden notion--which he
neglected to think over--flashed into Neale's mind. He left the upper
chamber of the old dove-cot, made his way down the stairs to the yard
beneath, turned the corner of the buildings, and by the aid of some
loose timber which lay piled against it, climbed to the top of Joseph
Chestermarke's wall. A moment of hesitation, and then he quietly dropped
to the other side, noiselessly, on the soft mould of the border. From
behind a screen of laurel bushes he looked out on the laboratory, at
close quarters.

Joseph was still coming and going with his sieve--now that Neale saw him
at a few yards distance he saw that the junior partner and amateur
experimenter was evidently cleaning out his furnace. The place into
which he threw the ashes was at the far end of the garden; at least
three minutes was occupied in each journey. And--yielding to a sudden
impulse--when Joseph made his next excursion and had his back fairly
turned, Neale crossed the lawn in half a dozen agile and stealthy
strides, and within a few seconds had slipped within the open door and
behind it.

A moment later, and he knew he was trapped. Joseph came back--and did
not enter. Neale heard him fling the sieve on the gravel. Then the door
was pulled to with a metallic bang, from without, and the same action
which closed it also cut off the electric light.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SOUND-PROOF

It needed no more than a moment's reflection to prove to Neale that he
had made a serious mistake in obeying that first impulse. Joseph
Chestermarke had gone away--probably for the