"Well, sir, I don't know whether it is a discovery, or not. But I'd like you to see it," he said, full of nervous impatience. Therefore, I called Simes to bring my hat and coat, and we went out together, taking a cab along to poor Roddy's chambers. They seemed strangely silent and deserted now, as we let ourselves in with the latch-key. No cheery voice welcomed me from the sitting-room within, and there was no odour of Egyptian cigarettes or overnight cigars; no fire in the grate, for all was cheerless and rendered the more funereal because of the darkness of the rainy day. "This morning," explained Ash, "when I thought I had made a thorough examination of the whole place last night, I chanced to be taking a turn around this room and made a discovery which seems to me very remarkable." Then, pointing, he went on: "You see in that cabinet there's some old china." "Yes," I answered, for some of the pieces were very choice, and I had often envied them. "From where we stand here we can see a small casket of chased brass-- Indian work, I think he called it." "Certainly." "Well, now, I chanced to pass this, and a thought occurred to me that I'd look what was in that box. I did so, and when I saw, I closed it up again and came to you to get your opinion." With that he opened the glass doors of the cabinet, took forth the little casket and opened it. Inside there was nothing but ashes. They were white ashes, similar to those I had found in my own rooms after Aline had departed! "Good God!" I gasped, scarcely believing my own eyes. "What was in this box before?" "When I opened it last week, sir, there was a rosary, such as the Roman Catholics use. It belonged to my master's grandmother, he once told me. She was a Catholic." I turned the ashes over in my hand. Yes, there was no doubt whatever that it had been a rosary, for although the beads were consumed yet the tiny lengths of wire which had run through them remained unmelted, but had been blackened and twisted by the heat. There was one small lump of metal about the size of a bean, apparently silver, and that I judged to have been the little crucifix appended. "It's extraordinary!" I said, bewildered, when I reflected that this fact lent additional colour to my vague theory that Aline might have visited Roddy before his death. "It's most extraordinary!" "Yes, sir, it is," Ash replied. "But what makes it the more peculiar is the fact that about a year ago I found a little pile of ashes very similar to these when I went one morning to dust the master's dressing-table. He always kept a little pocket Testament there, but it had gone, and only the ashes remained in its place. I called him, and when he saw them he seemed very upset, and said--`Take them out of my sight, Ash! Take them away! It's the Devil's work!'" "Yes," I observed. "This is indeed the Devil's work." The mystery surrounding the tragic affair increased hourly.