s missing, and many of our valuable securities with him.
Therefore----"

He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent
over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started--as
if a thought had suddenly occurred to him.

"I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those
jewels away in his own house?"

Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively.

"A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!"

"But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe
in their houses nowadays--they're so handy, you know, and so cheap.
Don't you think that may be it?"

"I am not familiar with Horbury's domestic arrangements," said Gabriel.
"I have not been in his house for some years. But as we are desirous of
giving your lordship what assistance we can, we will go into the house
and see if there is anything of the sort. Just tell the housekeeper we
are coming in, Neale."

The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two
partners in the adjacent hall.

"This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few
weeks ago," he said. "She saw me with him in that room."

"Certainly!" assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. "I remember your
lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner--your
lordship was here an hour or so."

Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room--an
old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the
rear of the house.

"Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe
in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean."

But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house.
There was a plate-chest--there it was, standing in a recess by the
sideboard; she had the key of it.

"Open that, at any rate," commanded Gabriel. "It's about as unlikely as
anything could be, but well leave nothing undone."

There was nothing in the plate-chest but what Gabriel expected to find
there. He turned again to the housekeeper.

"Is there anything in this house--cupboard, chest, trunk, anything--in
which Mr. Horbury kept valuables?" he asked. "Any place in which he was
in the habit of locking up papers, for instance?"

Mrs. Carswell again shook her head. No, she knew of no such place or
receptacle. There was Mr. Horbury's desk, but she believed all its
drawers were open. Her belief proved to be correct: Ga