watch of foreign
make--Swiss--and it's an old one, a good many years old, I should say.
Consequently, it's a bit what we might call massive. Now, I was looking
at it yesterday--late last night, in fact--and an idea suddenly struck
me. In consequence of that idea, I opened the back of the watch, and
discovered--that!"

He snapped open the case of the watch as he spoke and showed Allerdyke,
neatly cut out to a circle, neatly fitted into the case, a
photograph--the photograph of James Allerdyke! And Allerdyke started as
if he had been shot, and let out a sharp exclamation.

"My God!" he cried. "James! James, by all that's holy--and in there!"

"You recognize it, of course?" said Chettle, with a grim smile. "No doubt
of it, eh?"

"Doubt! Recognize!" exclaimed Allerdyke. "Lord, man--why, I took it
myself, not two months ago!"

CHAPTER XVIII

DEFINITE SUSPICION

Chettle laughed--a low, suggestive, satisfied chuckle. He laid the watch,
its case still open, on the table at which they were standing, and tapped
the photograph with the point of his finger.

"That may be the first step to the scaffold--for somebody," he said, with
a meaning glance. "Ah--it's extraordinary what little, innocent-looking
things help to put a bit of rope round a man's neck! So you took this,
Mr. Allerdyke?--took it yourself, you say?"

"Took it myself, some eight or nine weeks ago," answered Allerdyke. "I
took it in my garden one Sunday afternoon when my cousin James happened
to be there. I do a bit in that way--amusement, you know. I just chanced
to have a camera in my hand, and I saw James in a very favourable light
and position, and I snapped him. And it was such a good 'un when
developed that I printed off a few copies."

The detective's face became anxious.

"How many, now?" he asked. "How many, Mr. Allerdyke? I hope you can
remember?--it's a point of the utmost seriousness."

"Naught easier," answered Allerdyke readily. "I've a good memory for
little things as well as big 'uns. I printed off four copies. One of 'em
I pasted into an album in which I keep particularly good photographs of
my own taking; the other three I gave to him--he put 'em in his
pocket-book."

"All unmounted--like this?" asked Chettle.

"All unmounted--like that," affirmed Allerdyke. "And now, then, since it
seems to be a matter of importance, I can tell you what James did with at
any rate two of 'em. He gave one to our cousin Grace--Mrs. Henry
Mall