paper. Then he came into my private
room and closed the door behind him.

"Avaunt, dull care!" he exclaimed, taking in my dejected attitude and
exhibits on the desk at a glance. "Look up and grin, my friend." He had
his hands behind him.

"Don't be a fool," I snapped. "I'll not grin unless I feel like it."

"Grin, darn you," he said, and put something on the desk in front of me.
It was a Russia leather bag.

"_The_ leather bag!" he pointed proudly.

"Where did you get it?" I exclaimed, incredulous. Burton fumbled with
the lock while he explained.

"It was found in Boston," he said. "How do you open the thing, anyhow?"

It was not locked, and I got it open in a minute. As I had expected, it
was empty.

"Then--perhaps Wardrop was telling the truth," I exclaimed. "By Jove,
Burton, he was robbed by the woman in the cab, and he can't tell about
her on account of Miss Fleming! She made a haul, for certain."

I told him then of the two women who had left Bellwood on the night of
Miss Jane's disappearance, and showed him the purse and its inclosure.
The C puzzled him as it had me. "It might be anything," he said as he
gave it back, "from a book, chapter and verse in the Bible to a
prescription for rheumatism at a drug-store. As to the lady in the cab,
I think perhaps you are right," he said, examining the interior of the
bag, where Wardrop's name in ink told its story. "Of course, we have
only Wardrop's word that he brought the bag to Bellwood; if we grant
that we can grant the rest--that he was robbed, that the thief emptied
the bag, and either took it or shipped it to Boston."

"How on earth did you get it?"

"It was a coincidence. There have been a shrewd lot of baggage thieves
in two or three eastern cities lately, mostly Boston. The method, the
police say, was something like this--one of them, the chief of the gang,
would get a wagon, dress like an expressman and go round the depots
looking at baggage. He would make a mental note of the numbers, go away
and forge a check to match, and secure the pieces he had taken a fancy
to. Then he merely drove around to headquarters, and the trunk was
rifled. The police got on, raided the place, and found, among others,
our Russia leather bag. It was shipped back, empty, to the address
inside, at Bellwood."

"At Bellwood? Then how--"

"It came while I was lunching with Miss Letitia," he said easily. "We're
very chummy--thick as thieves. What I want to know is"--disrega