“He will be by to-morrow”; and Pointer, after reading over Mr. Beale's account and getting it signed, made off for the nearest telegraph office, while the American looked after him with an ironical smile. “Carter to be set free to-morrow. Well, well, the brains of the British police!” Christine was the first to arrive in London, where she was met by a pale, gaunt-faced young man. Pointer, carrying the signed paper which Mr. Beale had staked so much to obtain, followed, and with him, though in a different compartment, travelled Mr. Beale and his valet. The Chief Inspector, after an interview with the authorities at the Yard, went on to the Enterprise Hotel. The manager was in, and he practically repeated his opening words to Mr. Beale. The manager might or might not be made of better stuff than the American, but he certainly was of softer. He sank back into his chair, looking as though he saw the hangman already entering his cell. Chapter IX The Chief Inspector gave the manager no time to collect himself. He went rapidly over Mr. Beale's accusation that it was Mr. Hughes who had offered the papers of the dead man to him. “I'm in an awful hole.” The manager poured out a glass of whisky and soda with a shaking hand. “Pretty bad,” agreed the unsympathetic police-officer, “but perhaps it might be worse.” His glance around the room pointed his meaning. The tumbler was set unsteadily back on the tray. “I'm a ruined man in any case. I might as well have thrown up the sponge when you came last time——” “Perhaps,” murmured Pointer. “—but here's the true story. You can take it down, and I'll sign it here before we go to the police-station, or you can arrest me first and have it afterwards.” “Let's have it here.” “Well, the case was exactly as I told you up to that moment when Beale and I sat here after you had gone, talking over the suicide. I jumped up, for I suddenly remembered after all that Eames—I mean Erskine—_had_ given me a cardboard box to keep in the safe. I had joked him about it, saying it looked like a box of chocolates, and he had said it wasn't much more important, but still he wished me to take care of it for him. Without thinking—for it is one of my strictest rules that I never go to the safe without the booking-clerk or the hall porter with me, and never in the presence of a visitor, I unlocked the combination and opened it. That shows how rattled I was by what had just happened. I pulled out the box——” “Wrapped in green and white striped paper?” “That's the one. And I said something about ‘Good God, I forgot to speak of this to the police.’ I moved towards the door when Mr. Beale stopped me. He was tremendously excited, and said that as soon as he had seen Eames' face in the full light he had recognised him as a dangerous crook whose partner, and doubtless murderer, he (Beale) was after. In fact, he stuffed me with the same yarn he filled you up with when you arrested Carter.”