so I determined not to go to him except
as a last resource.

I resolved to begin with Mr. Gibbes, and, finishing my coffee, I got
again into a hansom, and drove back to the Temple. I found Bentham
Gibbes in his room, and after greeting me, his first inquiry was about
the case.

'How are you getting on?' he asked.

'I think I'm getting on fairly well,' I replied, 'and expect to finish
in a day or two, if you will kindly tell me the story of the silver
spoons.'

'The silver spoons?' he echoed, quite evidently not understanding me.

'There happened an incident in which two men were engaged, and this
incident related to a pair of silver spoons. I want to get the
particulars of that.' 'I haven't the slightest idea what you are
talking about,' replied Gibbes, thoroughly bewildered. 'You will need
to be more definite, I fear, if you are to get any help from me.'

'I cannot be more definite, because I have already told you all I
know.'

'What bearing has all this on our own case?'

'I was informed that if I got hold of the clue of the silver spoons I
should be in a fair way of settling our case.'

'Who told you that?'

'Mr. Lionel Dacre.'

'Oh, does Dacre refer to his own conjuring?'

'I don't know, I'm sure. What was his conjuring?'

'A very clever trick he did one night at dinner here about two months
ago.'

'Had it anything to do with silver spoons?'

'Well, it was silver spoons or silver forks, or something of that
kind. I had entirely forgotten the incident. So far as I recollect at
the moment there was a sleight-of-hand man of great expertness in one
of the music halls, and the talk turned upon him. Then Dacre said the
tricks he did were easy, and holding up a spoon or a fork, I don't
remember which, he professed his ability to make it disappear before
our eyes, to be found afterwards in the clothing of some one there
present. Several offered to bet that he could do nothing of the kind,
but he said he would bet with no one but Innis, who sat opposite him.
Innis, with some reluctance, accepted the bet, and then Dacre, with a
great show of the usual conjurer's gesticulations, spread forth his
empty hands, and said we should find the spoon in Innis's pocket, and
there, sure enough, it was. It seemed a proper sleight-of-hand trick,
but we were never able to get him to repeat it.'

'Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbes; I think I see daylight now.'

'If you do you are cleverer than I by a long chalk,' cried