alian sometimes brought his trained birds with him when he
called at Hume's. That's what he had last night."

But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.

"At this time," he said, "it will scarcely do to be positive on some
things. Indications are plenty, but they must be worked out. I have
some theories of my own upon the very point that you have just
covered, but I will not venture a decided statement until I have
proven them to the limit. It's the only safe way."

Pendleton discontentedly hitched forward in his chair.

"I thought," said he, "that you worked entirely by putting this and
that together."

"That is precisely what I do," returned Ashton-Kirk. "But I have
found, through experience, that there must be no loose ends left to
hang. Such things are treacherous; you never know when they'll trip
you up and upset all your calculations." He paused a moment and
regarded his friend steadfastly. Then he continued. "But, just now, I
think we had better not trouble ourselves about Edyth Vale and Allan
Morris. To be sure, the latter's connection with the affair is
peculiar; Miss Vale's visit to Hume's last night, the sounds which
Sams heard immediately after she had gone in--her turning out of the
gas and hurried flight, are also strange and significant enough. But
they are perhaps the very end of the story; and it is best never to
begin at the end."

"Is there any way by which you can begin at what you think is the
beginning?" asked the other.

Ashton-Kirk took up the parcel which Fuller had laid at his elbow.

"Here is one way," he answered. "Let us see where it leads us."

He stripped off the wrapper, and the bayonet which had killed the
numismatist was revealed, blood-clotted and ugly. Carefully the
investigator examined the broad, powerful blade and heavy bronze hilt.

"A Schwartz-Michael, just as I thought," he said.

"The maker's name is upon it then?" said Pendleton.

But the other shook his head.

"No," said he. "But it happens that I have given some attention to
arms, and the bayonet, though a weapon that is passing, came in for
its share."

He balanced the murderous-looking thing in his hand and proceeded.

"There are not many types of bayonets. The first was what they called
a 'Plug,' because it was made to fit into the muzzle of a flint, or
match-lock. Then there was the socket bayonet, the ring bayonet and an
improved weapon invented by an English officer named Chillingworth
which met with much favor