nded me to be, like himself, an engineer, and that I had
taken a pretty thorough technical course before adopting art as a
profession. And, after all, the simple explanations I had made were
known to almost every schoolboy with a little knowledge of chemistry or
physics.

"I believe your explanation of Mr. Ashton's death is the correct one,
Mr. Morgan," said McQuade, and he said it ungrudgingly. "But how, after
all, did the missing emerald come to be found in the cake of soap?"

"Undoubtedly Ashton put it there," I replied. "He realized the enormous
value of the thing and feared that some attempt might be made to take it
from him. His hiding place for the jewel was certainly an ingenious one,
and you will remember that you and your men searched the room thoroughly
on more than one occasion without finding it."

McQuade looked a bit sheepish at this. He walked over to the chandelier
and examined its ugly-looking spike with deep interest. It was stained
with dried blood and a few bits of hair still clung to it, but whether
Ashton's or my own, we could of course not tell. There seemed nothing
further that we could do, and, as McQuade said he intended going into
Exeter immediately after luncheon to make his report, and have the
authorities make an examination into the cause of the collection of the
carbonic-acid gas in the room, as well as the stains of blood, etc.,
upon the point of the chandelier, I suggested that I accompany him, as I
wanted to get my wound dressed without delay.

We set out, about an hour later, with Gibson and the high cart, and on
the way McQuade told me about his attempts to locate the much sought
emerald. It seems that after two days of effort his men had located the
underground temple of Buddha, but, when they found it, it had been
stripped of all its decorations and was merely an old cellar floored
over. It appears that the Chinamen, in taking us from the house in
Kingsgate street, had passed through an areaway back of the house, and
thence through a gateway in the rear wall, into a narrow court, along
which they had proceeded some distance. From here they had entered the
rear of a house facing upon the adjoining street, to which the cellar
belonged. The house had been taken, but a short time before, by a couple
of Chinamen who wished to use it as a dwelling. They were seldom seen by
the neighbors, and visitors came and went at night, unnoticed by the
occupants of the neighboring houses. They h