“Not so much as you would imagine. It is a very long wire, and in it they suggest he may have gone to Ostend to see a certain client, and will return in due course. But I am very doubtful of this. Monsieur Calliard was a very methodical man, not likely to do anything on the spur of the moment. If he had intended to pay this visit to Ostend, he would have had it in his mind for some little time, and notified us of his intention. Well, the affair is now in the hands of the police.” It was not till five days later that the dénouement came. It was evening, and Simmons sat on the terrace of the _Café Metropole_, sipping his _apéritif_. While doing so, he opened the _Petit Bleu_ and read a long account of the recovery of the body of an elderly, well-dressed man from the river Meuse, at a bend about a mile behind the little village of Godime. The doctors declared that it had been in the river since about the date corresponding with the disappearance of the wealthy jeweller. Upon him was found a sum of about three thousand francs, and papers which conclusively proved that he was a Monsieur Léon Calliard, member of a well-known firm, and residing in the Rue Lenon at Marseilles. In his pocket was found a half-obliterated letter written in indelible pencil, stating his intention of committing suicide in consequence of an unfortunate love affair. Simmons hastened round to his friend the director of the hotel, whom he found acquainted with the news. This gentleman threw scorn upon the suggestion of suicide. “Bah, my friend,” he cried excitedly, “Calliard was not that sort of man; he was a most devout Catholic. A love affair that would drive him off his head at his age. The idea is preposterous. He was fond of the society of attractive women, granted, but his was not the sort of nature capable of a great passion. I should like to see that letter, Monsieur Simmons. I will wager it is a forgery, put there by the assassin who killed him in order to get hold of that bag with its valuable contents.” And so, later on, it was proved to be the case. When the letter was shown to some of his intimate friends they unanimously declared it was a clumsy imitation of Calliard’s handwriting. “So all along it was robbery and murder, not simply blackmail that was intended,” said Grewgus, as he and his client sat discussing the whole facts of the case. “Simmons, of course, committed a blunder in not following Calliard that particular morning. He might have averted a tragedy. On the other hand, he might not. This is the work of a very cunning gang, and so long as Calliard had that bag in his possession, they were determined to have it. They would not have been satisfied with a first rebuff or a second. They would have followed him till they got it. Depend upon it, they had their plans laid with devilish precision. I don’t suppose we shall ever know how they got him into their clutches.”