found the parcel. It was a small, square
parcel, done up in brown paper and sealed with black wax; it had been
opened, the original wrapper put on again, and the seals resealed. I took
it into Mr. Fullaway's rooms and opened it, carefully. Inside I found a
small cigar-box, and in it the Princess's jewels. I took them out. Then I
put certain articles of corresponding weight into the box, did it up
again precisely as I had found it, smeared over the seals with more black
wax, went back to Van Koon's room with it, and placed it again where I
had found it--in a small suit-case.

"I now knew, of course, that Mr. James Allerdyke had sent those jewels
direct to Mr. Fullaway, immediately on his arrival in Hull, and that they
had fallen by sheer accident into Van Koon's hands. But I wanted to know
more. I wanted to know if Van Koon had any connection with this affair,
and if, when he saw that the parcel was from Hull, he had immediately
jumped to the conclusion that it might be from James Allerdyke, and might
contain the actual valuables. Fortunately, Mr. Rayner had already made
arrangements with a noted private inquiry agent to have Van Koon most
carefully and closely watched. And the very day after I found and took
possession of the jewels we received a report from this agent that Van
Koon was in the habit of visiting the shop and manufactory of a German
chemist named Schmall, in Whitechapel. Further, he had twice come away
from it, after lengthy visits, in company with a man whom the agent's
employees had tracked to the Hotel Cecil, and whom I knew, from their
description, to be Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Delkin's private secretary.

"Naturally, having discovered this, we gave instructions for a keener
watch than ever to be kept on both these men. But the name of the German
chemist gave me personally a new and most important clue. There had been
employed at the Waldorf Hotel, for some weeks up to the end of the first
week in May, a German-Swiss young man, who then called himself Ebers. He
acted as valet to several residents; amongst others, Mr. Fullaway. He was
often in and out of Mr. Fullaway's rooms. Once, Mr. Fullaway being out,
and I having nothing to do, I was cleaning up some photographic apparatus
which I had there. This man Ebers came in with some clothes of Mr.
Fullaway's. Seeing what I was doing, he got talking to me about
photography, saying that he himself was an amateur. He recommended to me
certain materials and thing