"Finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, Mansus," he
said, and he was in earnest as he spoke.

The man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of T. X. loved
him, and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. It was
on the advice of Mansus that the road from London to Lewes had
been carefully covered and such streams as passed beneath that
road had been searched.

The revolver had been found after the third attempt between
Gatwick and Horsley. Its identification was made easier by the
fact that Vassalaro's name was engraved on the butt. It was
rather an ornate affair and in its earlier days had been silver
plated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl,

"Obviously the gift of one brigand to another," was T. X.'s
comment.

Armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when to
this evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter
which he had found amongst Vassalaro's belongings, and which had
evidently been taken down at dictation, since some of the words
were misspelt and had been corrected by another hand, the case was
complete.

But what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that
peculiar chemical paper, a number of sheets of which T. X. had
ignited for the information of the Chief Commissioner and the Home
Secretary by simply exposing them for a few seconds to the light