I just
cleared out."

"Ah--you see you had quite a number of reasons!" said the chief,
smiling again. "Very well. Now then, before you go, Miss Lennard, I
want you to do just one thing more which may be useful to us in our
work." He turned to the detective. "Get those things," he said quietly.
"Bring the lot in here."

Celia made a little sound of distaste as the detective presently returned
to the room carrying in one hand a brown leather suit-case, and in the
other a cardboard dress-box, to which was strapped a travelling-coat,
lined with fur. Her face, which had regained its colour, paled again.

"Lisette's things!" she muttered. "Oh--I don't--don't like to see them!
What is it you want?"

"We want you to identify them--and, if you will, to look them over,"
replied the chief. "The cardboard box contains everything she was wearing
when she went to the hotel in Eastbourne Terrace; the suit-case and coat
are what she took in with her. Spread the things out on that side table,"
he continued, turning to the detective.

"Let Miss Lennard look them over."

Celia performed the task required of her with dislike--it seemed
somehow as if she were inspecting the dead woman afresh. She hurried
over the task.

"All these things are hers, of course," she said. "That's the suit-case
she had with her when she left me at Hull, and that's the coat I gave
her--and the other things are hers, too. Oh--I don't like looking at
them. Can't we go, please?"

"One moment," said the chief. "I wanted to tell you that amongst all
these things there is nothing that establishes the woman's identity--I
mean in the way of papers or anything of that sort. There were no letters
in this case--not a scrap of paper. There is money in that purse--two or
three pounds in gold, some silver. There is her watch--a good gold
watch--and there are two or three rings she was wearing. Now we have only
made a superficial examination of all these personal belongings--can you,
as her mistress, suggest if she was likely to hide anything in her
clothing, and if so, in what article? You might save us some trouble,
Miss Lennard."

Allerdyke, who was more interested in Celia than in what was going on,
saw a sudden gleam come into her eyes--her feminine spirit of curiosity
was aroused. She hesitated, turned back to the side-table, paused
before the various articles laid out there, took up and fingered two or
three, and suddenly wheeled round on the men, exhibiting