Dorrington smiled. "See here," he said, "I have found out something else in these rooms. What Kanamaro said he meant in another sense to what you supposed. _I_ wondered a little about that sword, and made a little search among some drawers in consequence. Look here. Do you see this box standing out here on a nest of drawers? That is quite unlike Mr. Deacon's orderly ways. The box contains a piece of lacquer, and it had been shifted from its drawer to make room for a more precious piece. See here." Dorrington pulled out a drawer just below where the box stood, and took from it another white wood box. He opened this box and removed a quantity of wadding. A rich brocade _fukusa_ was then revealed, and, loosening the cord of this, Dorrington displayed a Japanese writing-case, or _suzuribako_, aged and a little worn at the corners, but all of lacquer of a beautiful violet hue. "What!" exclaimed Mr. Colson. "Violet lacquer!" "That is what it is," Dorrington answered, "and when I saw it I judged at once that Deacon had at last consented to part with his Masamuné blade in exchange for that even greater rarity, a fine piece of the real old violet lacquer. I should imagine that Kanamaro brought it on Tuesday evening--you will remember that you saw Mr. Deacon for the last time alive in the afternoon of that day. Beard seems not to have noticed him, but in the evening hall-porters are apt to be at supper, you know--perhaps even taking a nap now and then!" "Then _this_ is how Kanamaro 'finished his business'!" Mr. Colson observed. "And the 'very great cost' was probably what he had to pay for this." "I suppose so. And he would not have believed it possible that he _could_ get a piece of violet lacquer in any circumstances." "But," Mr. Colson objected, "I still don't understand his indifference and lack of surprise when I told him of poor Deacon's death." "I think that is very natural in such a man as Keigo Kanamaro. I don't profess to know a very great deal about Japan, but I know that a _samurai_ of the old school was trained from infancy to look on death, whether his own or another's, with absolute indifference. They regarded it as a mere circumstance. Consider how cold-bloodedly their _hari-kiri_, their legalised suicide, was carried out!" As they left the rooms and made for the street Mr. Colson said, "But now I know nothing of your pursuit of Castro."