Mr. Penniket, to whom the two cousins and Mrs. Goldmark were evidently very well known, looked a polite enquiry at the stranger as he took the chair which Melky drew forward for him. "As Mr. Purdie is presumably discussing this affair with you," he observed, "I take it that you intend him to hear anything I have to tell?" "That's so, Mr. Penniket," answered Melky. "Mr. Purdie's one of us, so to speak--you can tell us anything you like, before him. We were going into details when you come--there's some strange business on, Mr. Penniket! And we want to get a bit clear about it before we tell the police what we know." "You know something that they don't know?" asked Mr. Penniket. "More than a bit!" replied Melky, laconically. "This here affair's revolving itself into a network, mister, out of which somebody's going to find it hard work to break through!" The solicitor, who had been quietly inspecting Purdie, gave him a sly smile. "Then before I tell you what I have just found out," he said, turning to Melky, "I think you had better tell me all you know, and what you have been discussing. Possibly, I may have something to tell which bears on our knowledge. Let us be clear!" He listened carefully while Purdie, at Zillah's request, told him briefly what had been said before his arrival, and Purdie saw at once that none of the facts surprised him. He asked Mrs. Goldmark one or two questions about the man who was believed to have dropped one of his cuff-links in her restaurant; he asked Melky a question as to his discovery of the other; he made no comment on the answers which they gave him. Finally, he drew his chair nearer to the table at which they were sitting, and invited their attention with a glance. "There is no doubt," he said, "that the circumstances centring round the death of my late client are remarkably mysterious! What we want to get at, put into a nut-shell, is just this--what happened in this parlour between half-past four and half-past five on Monday afternoon? We might even narrow that down to--what happened between ten minutes to five and ten minutes past five? Daniel Multenius was left alone--we know that. Some person undoubtedly came in here--perhaps more than one person came. Who was the person? Were there two persons? If there were two, did they come together--or singly, separately? All that will have to be solved before we find out who it was that assaulted my late client, and so injured him that he died under the shock. Now, Miss Wildrose, and Mr. Rubinstein, there's one fact which you may as well get into your minds at once. Your deceased relative had his secrets!"