and slightly stained by long rubbing against the leather. And
in its centre were a few words, or, rather abbreviations of
words, in Latin, and some figures:

In Para. Wrycestr. juxt. tumb.
Ric. Jenk. ex cap. xxiii. xv.

Bryce at first sight took them to be a copy of some
inscription but his knowledge of Latin told him, a moment
later, that instead of being an inscription, it was a
direction. And a very plain direction, too!--he read it
easily. In Paradise, at Wrychester, next to, or near, the
tomb of Richard Jenkins, or, possibly, Jenkinson, from, or
behind, the head, twenty-three, fifteen--inches, most likely.
There was no doubt that there was the meaning of the words.
What, now, was it that lay behind the tomb of Richard Jenkins,
or Jenkinson, in Wrychester Paradise?--in all probability
twenty-three inches from the head-stone, and fifteen inches
beneath the surface. That was a question which Bryce
immediately resolved to find a satisfactory answer to; in the
meantime there were other questions which he set down in order
on his mental tablets. They were these:

1. Who, really, was the man who had registered at the
Mitre under the name of John Braden?

2. Why did he wish to make a personal call on the
Duke of Saxonsteade?

3. Was he some man who had known Ransford in time