"Very convenient, that," observed Allerdyke. "I can remember when there wasn't a chance of it. Ayeand what might this be that you're asking about, now, Mr. Fullaway? What do you refer to?"
Fullaway, after a moment's surprised look at the Yorkshireman's stolid face, elevated his well-marked eyebrows and shook his head. Then he edged his chair nearer to the table at which Allerdyke sat.
"You don't know, then, that your cousin had valuables on him?" he asked in an altered tone.
"I know exactly what my cousin had on him, and what was in his baggage, when I found him dead in his room," replied Allerdyke drily.
"And what that waswas just what I should have expected to find.
Butnothing more."
Fullaway almost leapt in his chair.
"Nothing more!" he exclaimed. "Nothing more than you would have expected to find! Nothing?"
Allerdyke bent across the table, giving his visitor a keen look.
"What would you have expected to find if you'd found him as I found him?" he asked. "Comewhat, now?"
He was watching the American narrowly, and he saw that Fullaway's excitement was passing off, was being changed into an attentive eagerness. He himself thrust his hand into his breast pocket and drew out the papers which had been accumulating there since his arrival and discovery.
"We'd best be plain, Mr. Fullaway," he said. "I don't know you, but I gather that you knew James, and that you'd done business together."
"I knew Mr. James Allerdyke very well, and I've done business with him for the last two years," replied Fullaway.
"Just so," assented Allerdyke. "And your business"
"That of a general agentan intermediary, if you like," answered Fullaway. "I arrange private sales a good deal between European sellers and American buyerspictures, curiosities, jewels, antiques, and so on.
I'm pretty well known, Mr. Allerdyke, on both sides the Atlantic."
"Quite so," said Allerdyke. "I'm not in that line, however, and I don't know you. But I'll tell you all I do know and you'll tell me all you know. When I searched my cousin for papers, I found this wire from yousent to James at St. Petersburg. Now then, what does it refer to? Those valuables you hinted at just now?"
"Exactly!" answered Fullaway. "Nothing less!"
"What valuables are they?" asked Allerdyke.
"Jewels! Worth a quarter of a million," replied Fullaway.
"What? Dollars?"
Fullaway laughed derisively.
"Dollars! No, pounds! Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, my dear sir!" he answered.
"You think he had them on him?"
"I'm sure he had them on him!" asserted Fullaway. He, in his turn, began to produce papers. "At any rate, he had them on him when he was in Christiania the other day. He was bringing them over hereto me."
"On whose behalf?" asked Allerdyke.
"On behalf of a Russian lady, a Princess, who wished to find a purchaser for them," replied the American promptly.
"In that caseto come to the point," said Allerdyke, "if my cousin James had that property on him when he landed here last night and it wasn'tas it certainly wasn'ton him when I found him this morninghe's been robbed?"
"Robbedand murdered that he might be robbed!" answered Fullaway.
The two men looked steadily at each other for a while. Then Allerdyke laid his papers on the table between them.
"You'd better tell me all you know about it," he said quietly. "Let's hear it allthen we shall be getting towards knowing what to do."
"Willingly!" exclaimed the American. He produced and spread out a couple of cablegrams on which he laid a hand while he talked. "As I have already said, I have had several deals in business with Mr. James Allerdyke. I last saw him towards the end of March, in town, and he then mentioned to me that he was just about setting out for Russia. On April 20th I received this cable from himsent, you see, from St. Petersburg. Allow me to read it to you. He says. 'The Princess Nastirsevitch is anxious to find purchaser for her jewels, valued more than once at about a quarter of million pounds. Wants money to clear off mortgages on her son's estate, and set him going again. Do you know of any one likely to buy in one lot? Can arrange to bring over myself for buyers' inspection if chance of immediate good sale. James Allerdyke.' Now, as soon as I received that from your cousin I immediately thought of a possible and very likely purchaserMr. Delkin, a Chicago man, whose only daughter is just about to marry an English nobleman. I knew that Mr. Delkin had a mind to give his daughter a really fine collection of jewels, and I went at once to him regarding the matter. In consequence of my interview with Mr. Delkin, I cabled to James Allerdyke on April 21st, saying"
"This is it, no doubt," said Allerdyke, producing the message of the date mentioned.
"That is it," assented Fullaway, glancing across the table. "Very well, you see what I said. He replied to that at oncehere is his reply. It is, you see, very brief. It merely says, 'All rightshall wire details laterkeep possible buyer on.' I heard no more until last Thursday, May 8th, when I received this cablegram, sent, you see, from Christiania. In it he says: 'Expect reach Hull Monday night next. Shall come London next day. Arrange meeting with your man. Have got all goods.' Now those last four words, Mr. Allerdyke, if they mean anything at all, mean that your cousin was bringing these valuable jewels with him; had them on him when he cabled from Christiania. And if you did not find them when you searched himwhere are they? Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth!"
Allerdyke took the three cablegrams from his visitor and carefully read them through, comparing them with the dates already known to him, and with Fullaway's messages in reply. Eventually he put all the papers together, arranging them in sequence. He laid them on the table between Fullaway and himself, and for a moment or two sat reflectively drumming the tips of his fingers on them.
"Who is this Princess Nastirsevitch?" he asked suddenly looking up.
"Royalty, eh?"
"No," answered Fullaway, with a smile. "I don't know much about these European titles and dignities, but I don't think the title of Prince means in Russia what it does in England. A Prince there, I think, is some sort of nobleman, like your dukes and earls, and so on, here. But, anyway, the Princess Nastirsevitch isn't a Russian at all, except by marriageshe's a countryman of my own. I guess you've heard of hershe was Helen Hamilton, the famous dancer."
Allerdyke shook his head.
"Not my line at all," he said. "It was a bit in James's, though. Dancer, eh? And married a Prince?"
"Twenty-five years ago," replied Fullaway. "Ancient history, that. But I know a good deal about her. She made a big fortune with her dancing, and she invested largely in pearls and diamondsI know that. I also happen to know that she'd one son by her marriage, of whom she's passionately fond. And I read this thing in this way: I guess the old Prince's estates (he's dead, a year or two ago) were heavily mortgaged, and she hit on the notion of clearing all off by selling her jewels, so that her son might start clearno encumbrances on the property, you know."
Allerdyke pursed his lips and rubbed his chin.
"What I don't understand is that she confided a quarter of a million's worth of goods of that sort to a man whom she couldn't know so very well," he observed. "I never heard James speak of her."
"That may be." replied Fullaway. "But he may have known her very well for all that. However, there are the facts. And," he added, with emphasis, "there, Mr. Allerdyke, are those four words, sent from Christiania, 'Have got all goods!' Now, we can be reasonably sure of what he meant. He'd got the Princess's jewels. Very well! Where are they?"