s to fall upon it. While he considered matters,
Spargo looked at the box. It was pretty much what it had been described
to him as being; a small, square box of old cow-hide, very strongly
made, much worn and tarnished, fitted with a handle projecting from the
lid, and having the appearance of having been hidden away somewhere for
many a long day.

There was a click, a spring: Jobson stepped back.

"That's it, if you please, sir," he said.

The chairman motioned to the high official.

"If you would be good enough to open the box, sir," he said. "Our duty
is now concluded."

As the high official laid his hand on the lid the other men gathered
round with craning necks and expectant eyes. The lid was lifted:
somebody sighed deeply. And Spargo pushed his own head and eyes nearer.

The box was empty!

Empty, as anything that can be empty is empty! thought Spargo: there
was literally nothing in it. They were all staring into the interior of
a plain, time-worn little receptacle, lined out with old-fashioned
chintz stuff, such as our Mid-Victorian fore-fathers were familiar
with, and containing--nothing.

"God bless my soul!" exclaimed the chairman. "This is--dear me!--why,
there is nothing in the box!"

"That," remarked the high official, drily, "appears to be obvious."

The chairman looked at the secretary.

"I understood the box was valuable, Mr. Myerst," he said, with the
half-injured air of a man who considers himself to have been robbed of
an exceptionally fine treat. "Valuable!"

Myerst coughed.

"I can only repeat what I have already said, Sir Benjamin," he
answered. "The--er late Mr. Marbury spoke of the deposit as being of
great value to him; he never permitted it out of his hand until he
placed it in the safe. He appeared to regard it as of the greatest
value."

"But we understand from the evidence of Mr. Criedir, given to the
_Watchman_ newspaper, that it was full of papers and--and other
articles," said the chairman. "Criedir saw papers in it about an hour
before it was brought here."

Myerst spread out his hands.

"I can only repeat what I have said, Sir Benjamin," he answered. "I
know nothing more."

"But why should a man deposit an empty box?" began the chairman. "I--"

The high official interposed.

"That the box is empty is certain," he observed. "Did you ever handle
it yourself, Mr. Myerst?"

Myerst smiled in a superior fashion.

"I have already observed, sir, that from the time th