Now in the meantime, I want to see what my cousin's got on him, and I want you to help me.

We'll take everything off him in the way of valuables, papers, and so on, and put 'em in that small hand-bag of his." Master and man went methodically to work; and an observer of an unduly sentimental shade of mind might have said that there was something almost callous about their measured, business-like proceedings.

But Marshall Allerdyke was a man of eminently thorough and practical habits, and he was doing what he did with an idea and a purpose.

His cousin might have died from sudden heart failure; again, he might not, there might have been foul play; there might have been one of many reasons for his unexpected death--anyway, in Allerdyke's opinion it was necessary for him to know exactly what James was carrying about his person when death took place.

There was a small hand-bag on the dressing-table; Allerdyke opened it and took out all its contents.