found. He was in evening dress and a light top-coat had been packed
into the crate beside him. In this had been found a cigar-case and a
pair of gloves; a wallet containing £20 in Treasury notes and a number
of cards and personal papers had fallen out of the crate together with
the cat statuette. The face of his watch was broken. It had been in
his waistcoat pocket but it still ticked steadily on where it lay
there beside its dead owner. A gold-mounted malacca cane also figured
amongst the relics of the gruesome crime; so that whatever had been
the object of the murderer, that of robbery was out of the question.

"The next thing to do," said Gatton, "is to trace Sir Marcus's
movements from the time that he left home last night to the time that
he met his death. I am going out now to 'phone to the Yard. We ought
to have succeeded in tracing the carter who brought the crate here
before the evening. I personally shall proceed to Sir Marcus's rooms
and then to this Red House around which it seems to me that the
mystery centers."

He put the enamel figure into his pocket and taking up the broken
board which bore the painted cat:

"You are carrying a top-coat," he said. "Hide this under it!"

He turned to Inspector Heath, nodding shortly.

"All right," he said, with a grim smile, "go out now and talk to the
crowd!"

Having issued certain telephonic instructions touching the carter who
had delivered the crate to the docks, and then imparting to the