"Did Mr. Hume employ any person to assist him?" he asked.

"The scrub-woman told me that there was a young man here always when
she came during the business day for her wages. A sort of clerk, she
thought."

"He will be able to tell us if anything has been disturbed, no doubt,"
remarked Stillman.

Then he examined the body minutely. In the pockets were found a wallet
containing a large sum of money, a massive, old-fashioned gold watch
with a chain running from pocket to pocket of the waist-coat. Upon the
little finger of Hume's left hand was a magnificent diamond.

"Worth two thousand if it's worth a cent," appraised Osborne.

"If the criminal had meant robbery these things would unquestionably
have been taken," commented the young coroner. "Eh, Curran?"

"That is a very safe rule to go by, Mr. Stillman," replied his
assistant, with the utmost stolidity.

Through his big lenses the coroner gazed curiously at the bronze haft
protruding from the dead man's chest.

"A bayonet," said he. "Not a common weapon in a crime like this. In
fact, I should say it was rather in the nature of an innovation."

"It probably belonged in Hume's stock," suggested Osborne. "There
seems to be about everything here."