to depreciate?" I asked.

"Yes, it was quite a sudden affair--what Walter calls 'a slump'--and it
occurred only a few days before the robbery. Mr. Hornby was telling me
about it only yesterday, and he recalled it to me by a ridiculous
accident that happened on that day."

"What was that?" I inquired.

"Why, I cut my finger and nearly fainted," she answered, with a
shamefaced little laugh. "It was rather a bad cut, you know, but I
didn't notice it until I found my hand covered with blood. Then I turned
suddenly faint, and had to lie down on the hearthrug--it was in Mr.
Hornby's study, which I was tidying up at the time. Here I was found by
Reuben, and a dreadful fright it gave him at first; and then he tore up
his handkerchief to tie up the wounded finger, and you never saw such an
awful mess as he got his hands in. He might have been arrested as a
murderer, poor boy, from the condition he was in. It will make your
professional gorge rise to learn that he fastened up the extemporised
bandage with red tape, which he got from the writing table after rooting
about among the sacred papers in the most ruthless fashion.

"When he had gone I tried to put the things on the table straight again,
and really you might have thought some horrible crime had been
committed; the envelopes and papers were all smeared with blood and
marked with the print of gory fingers. I remembered it afterwards, when
Reuben's thumb-mark was identified, and thought that perhaps one of the
papers might have got into the safe by accident; but Mr. Hornby told me
that was impossible; he tore the leaf off his memorandum block at the
time when he put away the diamonds."

Such was the gist of our conversation as the cab rattled through the
streets on the way to the prison; and certainly it contained matter
sufficiently important to draw away my thoughts from other subjects,
more agreeable, but less relevant to the case. With a sudden remembrance
of my duty, I drew forth my notebook, and was in the act of committing
the statements to writing, when Thorndyke entered the room.

"Don't let me interrupt you, Jervis," said he. "I will make myself a cup
of tea while you finish your writing, and then you shall exhibit the
day's catch and hang your nets out to dry."

I was not long in finishing my notes, for I was in a fever of impatience
to hear Thorndyke's comments on my latest addition to our store of
information. By the time the kettle was boiling my entries