, almost at once. The mail collector, when he came, told
them, of course, that he could not return the letter; but Corvet
himself had taken the letters and looked them through. Corvet seemed
very much excited when he discovered the letter was not there; and when
the mail man remembered that he had been late on his previous trip and
so must have taken up the letter almost at once after it was mailed,
Corvet's excitement increased on learning that it was already probably
on the train on its way west. He controlled himself later enough at
least to reassure Wassaquam; for an hour or so after, when Corvet sent
Wassaquam away from the house, Wassaquam had gone without feeling any
anxiety about him.

"I told Wassaquam over the telephone only that something was wrong, and
hurried to my own home to get the key, which I had, to the Corvet
house; but when I came back and let myself into the house, I found it
empty and with no sign of anything having happened.

"The next morning, Alan, I went to the safe deposit vaults as soon as
they were open. I presented the numbered key and was told that it
belonged to a box rented by Corvet, and that Corvet had arranged about
three days before for me to have access to the box if I presented the
key. I had only to sign my name in their book and open the box. In
it, Alan, I found the pictures of you which I showed you yesterday and
the very strange communications that I am going to show you now."

Sherrill opened the long envelope from which several thin, folded
papers fell. He picked up the largest of these, which consisted of
several sheets fastened together with a clip, and handed it to Alan
without comment. Alan, as he looked at it and turned the pages, saw
that it contained two columns of typewriting carried from page to page
after the manner of an account.

The column to the left was an inventory of property and profits and
income by months and years, and the one to the right was a list of
losses and expenditures. Beginning at an indefinite day or month in
the year 1895, there was set down in a lump sum what was indicated as
the total of Benjamin Corvet's holdings at that time. To this, in
sometimes undated items, the increase had been added. In the opposite
column, beginning apparently from the same date in 1895, were the
missing man's expenditures. The painstaking exactness of these left no
doubt of their correctness; they included items for natural
depreciation of perish