"I'm going to tell something that I ain't told to nobody as yet!" he said. "Not even to Zillah. After this here parlour had been cleared, I took a look round. I've very sharp eyes, Mr. Purdie. I found this here--half-hidden under the rug there, where the poor old man had been lying." He pulled out the platinum solitaire, laid it on the palm of one hand, and extended the hand to Mrs. Goldmark. "You've seen the like of that before, ain't you?" asked Melky. "Mercy be upon us!" gasped Mrs. Goldmark, starting in her seat. "I've the fellow to it lying in my desk!" "And it was left on a table in your restaurant," continued Melky, "by a man what looked like a Colonial party--I know!--I saw it by accident in your place the other night, and one o' your girls told me. Now then, Mr. Purdie, here's a bit more of puzzlement--and perhaps a clue. These here platinum solitaire cuff-links are valuable--they're worth--well, I'd give a good few pounds for the pair. Now who's the man who lost one in this here parlour--right there!--and the other in Mrs. Goldmark's restaurant? For--it's a pair! There's no doubt about that, mister!--there's that same curious and unusual device on each. Mister!--them studs has at some time or other been made to special order!" Purdie turned the solitaire over, and looked at Zillah. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" he asked. "Never!" said Zillah. "It's as Melky says--specially made." "And you have its fellow--lost in your restaurant?" continued Purdie, turning to Mrs. Goldmark. "Its very marrow," assented Mrs. Goldmark, fervently, "is in my desk! It was dropped on one of our tables a few afternoons ago by a man who, as Mr. Rubinstein says, looked like one of those Colonials. Leastways, my waitress, Rosa, she picked it up exactly where he'd been sitting. So I put it away till he comes in again, you see. Oh, yes!" "Has he been in again?" asked Purdie. "Never was he inside my door before!" answered Mrs. Goldmark dramatically. "Never has he been inside it since! But--I keep his property, just so. In my desk it is!" Purdie considered this new evidence in silence for a moment. "The question now is--this," he said presently. "Is the man who seems undoubtedly to have dropped those studs the same man who brought that book in here? Or, had Mr. Multenius two callers here during your absence, Miss Wildrose? And--who is this mysterious man who dropped the studs--valuable things, with a special device on them? He'll have to be traced! Mrs. Goldmark--can you describe him, particularly?" Before Mrs. Goldmark could reply, a knock came at the side-door, and Zillah, going to answer it, returned presently with a middle-aged, quiet-looking, gold-spectacled gentleman whom she introduced to Purdie as Mr. Penniket, solicitor to the late Daniel Multenius. CHAPTER SIXTEEN THE DETECTIVE CALLS