which the man had packed all manner of curiosities such as three of us at
any rate had never seen in our lives before. But Mr. Lindsey, who was
something of a curiosity collector himself, nodded his head at the sight
of some of them.

"Wherever else this man may have been in his roving life," he said,
"here's one thing certain--he's spent a lot of time in Mexico and Central
America. And--what was the name he told you to use as a password once you
met his man, Hugh--wasn't it Panama?"

"Panama!" I answered. "Just that--Panama."

"Well, and he's picked up lots of these things in those parts--Panama,
Nicaragua, Mexico," he said. "And very interesting matters they are.
But--you see, superintendent?--there's not a paper nor anything in this
chest to tell us who this man is, nor where he came from when he came
here, nor where his relations are to be found, if he has any. There's
literally nothing whatever of that sort."

The police officials nodded in silence.

"And so--there's where things are," concluded Mr. Lindsey. "You've
two dead men on your hands, and you know nothing whatever about
either of them!"




CHAPTER VI