elded Plummer so little result that he called at
Hewitt's office to talk matters over.

"I suppose," Plummer began, "it's no use asking if you've heard anything
more of that matter of Denson's murder?"

Hewitt shook his head. "I haven't heard a word," he said. "If I had, it
would have come on to you at once. But I hope you've had some luck
yourself?"

"Not a scrap; time wasted; and the few off-chance clues I tried have led
nowhere, so that I'm where I was at the start. The thing is quite the
oddest in all my experience. See how we stand. Here's a man, Denson, who
has just pulled off one of the cleverest jewel robberies ever attempted.
He so arranges it that he walks safely off with fifteen thousand pounds'
worth of diamonds, leaving the victim, Samuel, stuck patiently in an
office for an hour or two before he even begins to suspect anything is
wrong, and _then_ unable to set the police after him, for the reasons
you discovered. But this Denson doesn't carry the plunder off
straightway, as he so easily might have done--he conceals it in the very
house where the robbery was committed, taking with him a key by aid of
which he may return and get it. Why? As you explained, it was probably
because he feared somebody--feared being stopped and searched _on the
day of the robbery_--not after, since it was plain he meant to return
for his booty at night. Who could this have been, and why did Denson
fear him? Mystery number one. Then this Denson is found dead that same
night disguised in the clothes of a labourer, in a most conspicuous spot
in London--the last place in the world one would expect a murderer to
select for depositing his victim's body, for it is evidently _not_ the
place where the murder was committed. More, on the forehead there is
this extraordinary impressed mark of a Red Triangle. Now, what can all
that mean? Robbery, perhaps one thinks. But the body isn't robbed! There
are three five-pound notes on it, besides a sovereign or two and some
small change, a watch and chain, keys and all the rest of it. Then one
guesses at the diamonds. Perhaps it was an accomplice in the robbery,
who finds that Denson is about to bolt with the whole lot. But if
there's one thing plain in this amazing business it is that Denson _had_
no accomplice; he did the whole thing alone, as you discovered, and he
needed no help. More than that, if this were the work of an accomplice
why didn't he get the jewels? There were the keys to his ha