containing the paper inscribed “By order.--Captain Shannon,” had been fastened to his wrist and the body cast adrift, to serve as a warning to others like him who might elect to enter the lists against the arch-assassin. But apart from the question of how Green met his end, I had to recognise that if the body were found while I was in the neighbourhood, and foul play were suspected, I, as a stranger, might be called on to give an account of myself, and might even be arrested on suspicion. Hence I decided to return to town at once, but as the crime might at any moment be discovered and an alarm raised, I thought it highly inadvisable to carry about with me anything which could be identified as the dead man’s property, and that I should do well to investigate the cigar-case at once and get it out of my possession. Two neatly-folded sheets of paper--a diagram and a letter--were concealed in the secret pocket, and one glance at them satisfied me that they were the documents of which I was in search. CHAPTER XIV ONE OF THE DOCUMENTS WHICH COST MY INQUIRY AGENT HIS LIFE As I could not secure a carriage to myself in the train by which I returned to town I had to defer a closer examination of the papers I had found until I had gained the seclusion of my own chambers in Buckingham Street. The first of the documents contained in Green’s cigar-case was a letter, evidently addressed to Mullen. It was dated from “Stavanger, Norway,” and ran as follows:-- “JAMES,--I know all. I have never tried to spy into your affairs, but I have known for a long time that you have been engaged in some secret undertaking which I felt sure was for no good purpose. Your sudden disappearances and equally sudden reappearances and the large sums of money you have had, have always been a source of anxiety to me. That it was some political plot you were engaged in I was certain, for you were not at such pains to disguise your real views before me as you were before others. I remember your wild talk about society having conspired to rob you from before your birth,--of your being denied the right to bear your father’s name, and of your mother’s name being a dishonour to you. That your father was a villain to our mother I know, and it may be that from him you inherit your evil tendencies, and that God may not hold you morally responsible for them. But James, bad as your father must have been, he was, after all, your father, and the language you sometimes used about him has made me, who am used to your violence, shudder and turn sick.