eflecting for a moment, and then turned to
his manager with a sudden question.

"Have you heard all this about my cousin James?" he asked with sharp
directness.

Appleyard lifted a couple of newspapers from his desk.

"No more than what's in these," he answered. "One tells of his sudden
death at Hull; the other begins to hint that there was something queer
about it."

"Queer!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Aye, and more than queer, my lad. Our
James was murdered! Now, then, Ambler, I've come here to tell you all the
story--you must listen to every detail. I know your brains--keep 'em
fixed on what I'm going to tell; hear it all; weigh it up, and then tell
me what you make of it; for I'm damned if I can make either head or tail,
back, side, or front of the whole thing--so far. Happen you can see a bit
of light. Listen, now."

Allerdyke, from long training in business habits, was a good teller of a
plain and straightforward tale: Appleyard, for the same reason, was a
good listener. So one man talked, in low, earnest tones, checking off
his points as he made them, taking care that he emphasized the principal
items of his news and dwelt lightly on the connecting links, and the
other listened in silence, keeping a concentrated attention and storing
away the facts in his memory as they were duly marshalled before him.
For a good hour one brain gave out, and the other took in, and without
waste of words.

It came to an end at last, and master looked at man.

"Well?" said Allerdyke, after a silence that was full of meaning--"well?"

"Take some thinking about," answered Appleyard tersely. "It's a big
thing--a devilish clever thing, too. There's one fact strikes me at once,
though. The news about the Nastirsevitch jewels leaked out somewhere, Mr.
Allerdyke. That's certain. Either here in London, or over there in
Russia, it leaked out. Now until this Princess comes you've no means of
knowing if the leakage was over yonder. But there's one thing you do
know now--at this very minute. There were three people here in England
who knew that the jewels were on the way from Russia, in Mr. James
Allerdyke's charge. Those three were this man Fullaway, his lady
secretary, and Delkin, the Chicago millionaire! Now, then, Mr.
Allerdyke--how much, or what, do you know about any one of 'em?"

CHAPTER XIV

FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD

Allerdyke encountered this direct question with a long, fixed stare of
growing comprehension; his s