“Then there were the ‘Ethiopian and General’ papers—they were missing from Sir Garth’s carefully collected wrapper on the ‘Victory Finance Company.’ They must have been stolen. The opportunities of stealing them were very slight—Hessel called Mr. Mangane within a few minutes of Sir Garth’s body being carried upstairs out of here, and had the study doors locked—took the keys. He carefully did not come back here till days afterwards, and then only went into the room with Menticle and Mr. Mangane as witnesses—to create the impression that nobody had a chance of touching anything—that nothing _had_ been touched. Actually, there was a possibility that they might have been taken _before_ he and Mangane locked the study. It was hardly likely that they were moved before the body was brought back—though not impossible. While the body was in here, Golpin was in the hall and swears nobody entered the study. Mangane might have gone in from his room—nobody else could have because he was there all the time. But I didn’t think he had—I knew him personally. There remained the possibility that Hessel had gone in himself in those two or three minutes after the body was moved and before he sent for Mangane. There was no earthly reason why he shouldn’t have—I came to the conclusion that he did. “I should say that there’s no doubt that your father had begun to smell trouble about the Ethiopian and General, Miss Fratten, and that his notes made that pretty clear. No doubt that was why he seemed to you to be worried—he was unhappy at finding a friend—Sir Hunter—mixed up in a shady business. That’s why Hessel only took the ‘Ethiopian and General’ papers. Why he left the other notes—the details about the Nem Nem Sohar and South Wales Pulverization and the queries about all three, which attracted our attention to the Ethiopian and General,—I don’t know. Probably he lost his head—or tried to be too clever—it’s generally one of those alternatives that hangs a murderer. “Of course I only came to this point quite late—the last developments came with a rush and I couldn’t do everything at once—I had no time to question him again, though I tried to once—he was away. But we should definitely have linked him up in a day or two. Now, Miss Fratten, I’ve taken rather longer than I meant over that—I haven’t time to answer more questions—because I’ve got something to tell you. “It’s what I really came here for—to read you a letter. My chief—Sir Leward Marradine—told me to come and show it to you—reading will be simplest. “It’s a letter from Captain Wraile—postmark ‘Liverpool,’ date yesterday—no other indication. This is what he says: “Dear Commissioner,