This reputation had been due possibly to the fact that his knowledge of the class for which he catered had been exceedingly deep, also that he happened to be an excellent judge of character and of human nature. Thus where he would politely refuse to accommodate A, B and C, with a loan, no matter how small, to D, E and F, though in no better circumstances and with no better security to offer, he would readily advance quite large sums, instinctively knowing them to be people who would eventually repay the loans of their own accord, also the heavy interest which he charged, even though before doing so they might need to renew their bills perhaps several times. “Odd thing, this exhumation of Schomberg’s body,” Blenkiron remarked carelessly as he stood chatting with La Planta at the corner of Brook Street one morning. “What do you make of it, Archie?” “Don’t ask me,” La Planta replied quickly. “I only hope I shall not be dragged in to give evidence. I begin to wish to heaven I had not met Schomberg that night, but Louie would invite him.” “I wish you had been present at the inquest,” Blenkiron went on. “Your documentary evidence left several points undecided, as the coroner clearly explained. I believe if those points had been cleared up this exhumation business would never have come about.” “Yes. I now wish, too, that I had been there, though I congratulated myself at the time on being out of it all. The doctor, you see, wouldn’t let me out of bed--I had such a bad chill. What is your theory concerning the cause of death?” “Oh, I have no theory,” Blenkiron answered. “The coroner attributed death to natural causes, so I stand by his decision.” “That is exactly my argument,” La Planta said hurriedly. “Yet I meet fellows who declare they thought all along there was something ‘fishy,’ as they call it, about the poor fellow’s death, though you may depend on it the ‘fishiness’ would never have occurred to them if this exhumation had not been ordered. The police, I hear, were notified privately that there were certain doubts as to the cause of death.” Yet when the inquiry did take place, the report was not wholly satisfactory. Though no traces of any sort of poison could be found, the condition of the remains was declared to be abnormal. There is no need to go into details. The next startling announcement was that Archie La Planta had been arrested. At once the newspapers focused the attention of the public on the unhappy young man, and then for the first time the searchlight of notoriety illuminated as much of his past life as the press was able to rake up. Indeed, it came as rather a shock to some of his friends to find that apparently nothing was known about him prior to his arrival in London some years previously.