ight be based on the fact that
there was some sort of likeness between him and some members of my
family.'

Dunbar jotted this down also. 'And you positively have no recollection
of having seen him?' he said, as he fastened a band of elastic round
the book. 'If that is so he must have had accomplices in England who
stole the box for him. I shall have to find out where these boxes were
kept at your home, and, as nearly as possible, I must discover with
whom Purvis was in communication in England. Or he may have gone there
himself. I know that he went home in one of Lamport & Holt's boats
only a few months ago--that was after the wreck of the _Rosana_, you
understand--and it was while he was in England that I saw him, and knew
for certain that he had not gone down in the wreck. My warrant against
him is for a common hotel robbery. It was when he came back to
Argentine that he began this river-trading, which was in the hands of a
better man till he took it.'

'The plan will be for you and my lawyer to work together,' said Peter;
'but at present I can't furnish you with the smallest clue as to how
these papers came into his possession. I know the look of the box
quite well. There were several of them in my mother's writing-room,
which was in the oldest part of the house. They were all destroyed one
night last autumn when we had rather a serious fire there.'

Dunbar took out his notebook and began to write.

'_By Jove!_' exclaimed Peter, suddenly starting from his seat. He saw
it all in a flash: the burning tower, with volumes of smoke rising from
it; the line of men, with hose and buckets, pouring water on the
connecting bridge of the tower; the groups of frightened guests on the
terrace, and his mother standing unmoved amongst them in her sumptuous
purple dress and the diamonds in her hair; the arrival of the
fire-engine from Sedgwick; and then, just at the end, the figure of a
man appearing on the bridge, with a cloak wound round his head, dashing
into the doorway through which the smoke was issuing in great waves;
his sudden flight across the bridge again; and then Jane, at his elbow,
clasping his arm and saying, in a terrified tone, 'Oh, Peter! for a
moment I thought it was you!'

Dunbar was scribbling rapidly in his notebook. 'It is as clear as
mud!' he said at last. 'Purvis, after the _Rosana_ incident, was
missing for a considerable time, and it is believed that his English
wife at Rosario hid him