"Did Mr. Hume employ any person to assist him?" he asked.

"The scrub-woman told me that there was a young man here always when
she came during the business day for her wages. A sort of clerk, she
thought."

"He will be able to tell us if anything has been disturbed, no doubt,"
remarked Stillman.

Then he examined the body minutely. In the pockets were found a wallet
containing a large sum of money, a massive, old-fashioned gold watch
with a chain running from pocket to pocket of the waist-coat. Upon the
little finger of Hume's left hand was a magnificent diamond.

"Worth two thousand if it's worth a cent," appraised Osborne.

"If the criminal had meant robbery these things would unquestionably
have been taken," commented the young coroner. "Eh, Curran?"

"That is a very safe rule to go by, Mr. Stillman," replied his
assistant, with the utmost stolidity.

Through his big lenses the coroner gazed curiously at the bronze haft
protruding from the dead man's chest.

"A bayonet," said he. "Not a common weapon in a crime like this. In
fact, I should say it was rather in the nature of an innovation."

"It probably belonged in Hume's stock," suggested Osborne. "There
seems to be about everything here."

But Stillman shook his head.

"We have already about concluded that the intention of the criminal
was not robbery," stated he. "And now, if we make up our minds that
the bayonet belonged to Hume--that the assassin, in point of fact,
came here without a weapon--it must be that he did not intend murder
either."

"Maybe he didn't," ventured Osborne. "There might have been a sudden
quarrel. The person who struck that blow may have grabbed up the first
competent looking thing that came to his hand."

Stillman turned to Ashton-Kirk.

"That sounds reasonable enough, eh?"

"Very much so," replied Ashton-Kirk.

"A bayonet is a most unusual weapon," said the coroner thoughtfully,
readjusting his glasses. "And I think it would be a most awkward thing
to carry around with one. Therefore, it would be a most unlikely
choice for an intending assassin. I am of the opinion," nervously,
"that we may safely say that it was a sudden quarrel which ended in
this," and he gestured with both hands toward the body.

The safe doors were tried and found locked; a cash register was opened
and found to contain what had been apparently the receipts of the day
before. An examination of the cabinets and cases disclosed hundreds
of ancie