ellow away and swore haltingly that I would say nothing.
We mingled a few tears, and he got out as the train was moving....

"And there you are. I'd got my reprieve. Everything in the garden was
lovely. But I couldn't enjoy it. My spirits failed to respond." He
took the Sealyham's head between his hands and gazed into his eyes.

"O Nobwell, Nob-well!
Had I but seen the fool at half-past eight
As he desired, he would not in the train
Have put the wind up me so hellishly."

There was a moment's silence.

Then Jonah stepped to my brother-in-law and clapped him on the back.

"Brother," he said, "I take my hat off. I tell you frankly I couldn't
have done it. I wouldn't have claimed that case at Paris for a
thousand pounds."

Clamorously we endorsed his approval.

By way of acknowledgment the hero groaned.

"What you want," said I, "is a good night's rest. By mid-day to-morrow
you'll be touching the ground in spots."

"I shan't be touching it at all," said Berry. "If it's nice and warm,
I shall have a Bath chair, which you and Jonah will propel at a
convenient pace. Nobby will sit at my feet as a hostage against your
careless negotiation of gradients." He drew a key from his pocket and
pitched it on to a table. "I fancy," he added, "I heard them put the
case on the landing: and as I propose, decorative though it is, to
remove my beard, perhaps one of you wasters will fetch me a cigarette."

There was a rush for the door.

True enough, the uniform-case was outside.

Jonah and I had its cords off in twenty seconds.

One hinge was broken and some khaki was protruding.

Adele thrust the key into the lock. This was too stiff for her
fingers, so after a desperate struggle, she let me have at the wards....

After an exhausting two minutes we sent for a cold-chisel....

As the lock yielded, Berry appeared upon the scene.

For a moment he stared at us. Then--

"But why not gun-cotton?" he inquired. "That's the stuff to open a
broken box with, if you don't like the look of the key. You know,
you're thwarting me. And don't try to turn the lid back, because there
aren't any hin----"

The sentence was never finished.

As I lifted the lid, my brother-in-law fell upon his knees. With
trembling hands he plucked at a Jaeger rug, reposing, carefully folded,
upon the top of some underclothes. Then he threw back his head and
took himself by the throat.

"Goats and monkeys!" he shrieke