"I'm sure he had them on him!" asserted Fullaway. He, in his turn, began
to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was in
Christiania the other day. He was bringing them over here--to me."

"On whose behalf?" asked Allerdyke.

"On behalf of a Russian lady, a Princess, who wished to find a purchaser
for them," replied the American promptly.

"In that case--to come to the point," said Allerdyke, "if my cousin
James had that property on him when he landed here last night and it
wasn't--as it certainly wasn't--on him when I found him this
morning---he's been robbed?"

"Robbed--and murdered that he might be robbed!" answered Fullaway.

The two men looked steadily at each other for a while. Then Allerdyke
laid his papers on the table between them.

"You'd better tell me all you know about it," he said quietly. "Let's
hear it all--then we shall be getting towards knowing what to do."

"Willingly!" exclaimed the American. He produced and spread out a couple
of cablegrams on which he laid a hand while he talked. "As I have already
said, I have had several deals in business with Mr. James Allerdyke. I
last saw him towards the end of March, in town, and he then mentioned to
me that he was just about setting out for Russia. On April 20th I
received this cable from him--sent, you see, from St. Petersburg. Allow
me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to
find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter