isoner, Inspector," Chester said. "He is the man we
have been looking for so long. I fancy we have got all the swag that has
been stolen for the last eighteen months--bags of jewels and watches,
and sacks of silver. He is handcuffed, and his legs are tied, so we must
carry him in."

The officer fetched out a lantern. The other constable helped him to let
down the backboard of the cart.

"Now, Bastow, wake up," Chester said. "Here we are."

But there was no movement!

"He is mighty sound asleep," the constable said.

"Well, haul him out;" and, taking the man by the shoulders, they pulled
him out from the cart.

"There is something rum about him," the constable said; and as they
lowered his feet to the pavement his head fell forward, and he would
have sunk down if they had not supported him.

The Inspector raised the lantern to his face.

"Why, the man is dead," he said.

"Dead!" Chester repeated incredulously.

"Aye, that he is. Look here;" and he pointed to a slim steel handle some
three inches long, projecting over the region of the heart. "You must
have searched him very carelessly, Chester. Well, bring him in now."

They carried him into the room, where two candles were burning. Mark
followed them. The inspector pulled out the dagger. It was but four
inches long, with a very thin blade. The handle was little thicker than
the blade itself. Mark took it and examined it.

"I have not a shadow of doubt that this is the dagger with which he
murdered my father. The wound was very narrow, about this width, and the
doctor said that the weapon that had been used was certainly a foreign
dagger."

"I don't think this is a foreign dagger," the Inspector said on
examining it, "although it may be the one that was used, as you say,
Mr. Thorndyke. It has evidently been made to carry about without being
observed."

He threw back the dead man's coat.

"Ah, here is where it was kept. You see, the lining has been sewn to the
cloth, so as to make a sheath down by the seam under the arm. I expect
that, knowing what would happen if he were caught, he had made up his
mind to do it all along. Well, I don't know that you are to be so much
blamed, Chester, for, passing your hand over his clothes, you might very
well miss this, which is no thicker than a piece of whalebone. Well,
well, he has saved us a good deal of trouble. You say you have got most
of the booty he has collected?"

"I don't know that we have got all of it,