"What, did you commit yourself with the police?" He smiled again. "Oh, no! Nevertheless, you would have been arrested, Mr. Hume, and you would have thought--by the police!" "I--see; but--but--how could you have known, I mean, how could you have been sure that I was I--until you had communicated with--with her?" For a third time he smiled, and when he spoke it was in a tone of genuine admiration. "You are an able man, Mr. Hume!" said he, "but no chain is stronger than its weakest link, and your weakest link was revealed to me that very morning!" "Ah! what was it?" "An advertisement in the personal column of the _Daily Mail_." "You deal in mysteries!" I cried impatiently, "I never inserted such an advertisement in my life." "It ran like this"--replied Sir Charles. "If the gentleman who left a plain, oak coffin in the front room of number 904 Old Kent Road on the morning of the ---- day of ----, does not claim it within fourteen days from date, it will be sold to pay expenses. Sarah Rosenbaum!" "The idiot!" I gasped. "I gave it to her!" Sir Charles burst out laughing. "Did you?" he cried--"did you indeed? Well luckily for me she could not have understood you!" "Do you mean to say, sir, it was only that advertisement which put you on my track?" "That, and only that. I suspected you before, but I confess that you were adroit enough to allay my suspicions and hoodwink me completely!" "Oh! Lord," I groaned. "To think that a frowsy, oily haired Jewess should be the cause of my undoing. Why in the name of goodness was she not satisfied to take the coffin for a gift!" "Perhaps she was afraid to sell it, or perhaps she tried to sell it and could not show a title to its would-be purchaser. You should not condemn her, Hume, upon _ex parte_ evidence. Pardon me for saying it, but the fault was yours. You should not have given her the coffin at all. You should have got rid of it by other means!" "Too true!" I groaned. "But I only wanted a day's grace then, or I'd not have been so careless!" "You had seven!" he exclaimed. "The advertisement did not appear for a week!" I felt my cheeks crimson. "After all," I muttered, "you owe everything to Marion." "Were you really such a fool," he cried. I nodded. "Give me to drink!" I said. "I'm feeling weak and sick." He made a sign, and one of the negroes hurried out. I was very near swooning, when I felt my chair tipped back, and something was forced between my teeth. I drank and was revived. Then one of the negroes fed me with a bowl of soup and soon my strength was perfectly restored. Sir Charles Venner waited all the time before me, occasionally feeling my pulse. He seemed satisfied at last that my condition warranted his promised inquisition, and he proceeded straight away to business. "Where are the jewels?" he demanded. "The jewels you purchased with the ten thousand pounds that you extorted from me?" "In a safe place." I replied.