of it
later. It may be of importance."

"Well, there's this much to bear in mind," whispered the superintendent,
drawing back a little with an eye on the others. "Nothing of that sort
was found on your client! And he'd been out all night. That's worth
considering--from his standpoint, Mr. Brereton."

Brereton nodded his assent and turned away with another warning glance.
And presently Pett and the superintendent went off, and Bent dropped
into his easy chair with a laugh.

"Queer sort of unexpected legacy!" he said. "I wonder if the old man
really thought I should be interested in his scrap-book?"

"There may be a great deal that's interesting in it," remarked Brereton,
with a glance at the book, which Bent had laid aside on top of a
book-case. "Take care of it. Well, what did you think of Mr.
Christopher Pett?"

"Cool hand, I should say," answered Bent. "But--what did you think of
him?"

"Oh, I've met Mr. Christopher Pett's sort before," said Brereton, drily.
"The Dodson & Fogg type of legal practitioner is by no means extinct. I
should much like to know a good deal more about his various dealings
with Kitely. We shall see and hear more about them, however--later on.
For the present there are--other matters."

He changed the subject then--to something utterly apart from the murder
and its mystery. For the one topic which filled his own mind was also
the very one which he could not discuss with Bent. Had Cotherstone, had
Mallalieu anything to do with Kitely's death? That question was
beginning to engross all his attention: he thought more about it than
about his schemes for a successful defence of Harborough, well knowing
that his best way of proving Harborough's innocence lay in establishing
another man's guilt.

"One would give a good deal," he said to himself, as he went to bed that
night, "if one could get a moment's look into Cotherstone's mind--or
into Mallalieu's either! For I'll swear that these two know
something--possibly congratulating themselves that it will never be
known to anybody else!"

If Brereton could have looked into the minds of either of the partners
at this particular juncture he would have found much opportunity for
thought and reflection, of a curious nature. For both were keeping a
double watch--on the course of events on one hand; on each other, on the
other hand. They watched the police-court proceedings against Harborough
and saw, with infinite relief, that nothing transpired wh