so
much importance as to appropriate it. Therefore, it is--just what I
thought it wasn't--a matter of moment. I ought to have taken more care
about it, from the time Mr. Cazalette first drew my attention to those
marks inside the lid."

"You're sure that it was on the table at the inquest?" I suggested.

"I'm sure of that," he replied with conviction, "for I distinctly
remember laying out the various objects myself. When the inquest was
over, I told the man you've just seen to put them all together and to
seal the package when he brought it back here. No--that tobacco-box
was picked up--stolen--off that table."

"Then there's more in the matter than lies on the surface," said I.

"Evidently," said he. He looked dubiously from Miss Raven to myself.
"I suppose the old gentleman--Mr. Cazalette--is to be--trusted? I
mean--you don't think that he's found out anything with his
photography, and is keeping it dark?"

"Miss Raven and myself," I replied, "know nothing whatever of Mr.
Cazalette except that he is a famous authority on coins and medals, a
very remarkable person for his age, and Mr. Raven's guest. As to his
keeping the result of his investigations dark, I should say that no
one could do that sort of thing better!"

"Aye, so I guessed," muttered the inspector. "I wish he'd tell us,
though, if he has discovered anything. But I suppose he'll take his
time?"

"Precisely," said I. "Men like Mr. Cazalette do. Time is regarded by
men of his peculiar temperament in somewhat different fashion to the
way in which we younger folk regard it--having come a long way along
the road of life, they refuse to be hurried. Well--I suppose you'll
make some inquiries about that box? By the way, if it's not a
professional secret, have you heard any more of the affair at
Saltash?"

"They haven't found out another thing," he answered, with a shake of
the head. "That's as big a mystery as this!

"What do you think, from your standpoint, of the two affairs?" I
asked, more for the delectation of Miss Raven than for my own
satisfaction--I knew she was curious about the double mystery. "Have
you formed any conclusion?"

"I've thought a great deal about it," he replied. "It seems to me that
the two brothers, Salter and Noah Quick, were men who had what's
commonly called a past, and that there was some strange secret in
it--probably one of money. I think that in their last days they were
tracked, shadowed, whatever you like to call it