"None of us have heard of them," he remarked. "Horbury could not have put them in this strong room without my knowledge. They are certainly not there. The safes my nephew mentioned just now are used only for books and papers. Your lordship's casket is not in either." The Earl rose slowly from his chair. It was evident to Neale that he was more surprised than angry: he looked around him as a man looks whose understanding is suddenly brought up against something unexplainable. "All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own dining-room one evening some weeks ago," he said. "That's certain! So I naturally expect to find it--here." "And it is not here--that is equally certain," observed Gabriel. "What is also certain is that our manager--trusted in more than he should have been!--is missing, and many of our valuable securities with him. Therefore----" He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started--as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. "I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those jewels away in his own house?" Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively. "A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!" "But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe in their houses nowadays--they're so handy, you know, and so cheap. Don't you think that may be it?" "I am not familiar with Horbury's domestic arrangements," said Gabriel. "I have not been in his house for some years. But as we are desirous of giving your lordship what assistance we can, we will go into the house and see if there is anything of the sort. Just tell the housekeeper we are coming in, Neale." The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two partners in the adjacent hall. "This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few weeks ago," he said. "She saw me with him in that room." "Certainly!" assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. "I remember your lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner--your lordship was here an hour or so." Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room--an old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the rear of the house. "Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean." But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house. There was a plate-chest--there it was, standing in a recess by the sideboard; she had the key of it. "Open that, at any rate," commanded Gabriel. "It's about as unlikely as anything could be, but we'll leave nothing undone." There was nothing in the plate-chest but what Gabriel expected to find there. He turned again to the housekeeper.