s of that sort which he said he could get from
a friend of his, a chemist, who was an enthusiastic photographer and
manufactured chemicals and things used in photography. I gave him some
money to get me a supply of things, and he brought various packets and
parcels to me two or three days later. Each packet bore the name of Otto
Schmall, and an address in a street which runs off Mile End Road.

"Now, when the private inquiry agent made his reports to Mr. Rayner and
myself about Van Koon, and told us where he had been tracked to more than
once, I, of course, remembered the name of Schmall, and Mr. Rayner and I
began to put certain facts together. They were these:

"_First._--Ebers had easy access to Mr. Fullaway's room at all hours, and
was often in them when both Mr. Fullaway and I were out. Mr. Fullaway is
notoriously careless in leaving papers and documents, letters and
telegrams lying around. Ebers had abundant opportunities of reading lots
of documents relating to (1) the Pinkie Pell pearls, and (2) the
proposed Nastirsevitch deal.

"_Second._--Ebers was a friend of Schmall. Schmall was evidently a man of
great cleverness in chemistry.

"_Third._--All the circumstances of Mr. James Allerdyke's death, and of
Lisette Beaurepaire's death, pointed to unusually skillful poisoning. Who
was better able to engineer that than a clever chemist?

"_Fourth._--The jewels belonging to the Princess Nastirsevitch had
undoubtedly fallen into Van Koon's hands. Van Koon was a friend of
Schmall. So also, evidently, was Merrifield. Now, Merrifield, as Delkin's
secretary, knew of the proposed deal.

"Obviously, then, Schmall, Van Koon, and Merrifield were in
league--whether Ebers was also in league, or was a catspaw, we did not
trouble to decide. But there was another fact which seemed to have some
bearing, though it is one which I have never yet worked out--perhaps some
of you know something of it. It was this: Just before he went to Russia,
Mr. James Allerdyke, being in town, gave me a photograph of himself which
Mr. Marshall Allerdyke had recently taken. I kept that photo lying on my
desk at Mr. Fullaway's for some time. One day I missed it. It is such an
unusual thing for me to misplace anything that I turned over every paper
on my desk in searching for it. It was not to be found. Four days later I
found it, exactly where it ought to have been. Now, you can draw your own
conclusions from that--mine are that Ebers stole it, so th