I've had a draught excluder specially fitted this afternoon."

    Larry thought a moment.

    "Perhaps it's as well I didn't go to Monte Carlo," he said, and sat down at his desk. "Now let us start, shall we?" She opened her book and took up a pencil, whilst Larry examined the trinkets that lay on the tray.

    "Take this down, please," he said. "Watch made Gildman of Toronto, half-hunter, jewel-balanced; No. A778432. No scratches on the inside." He opened the case and snapped it again, then tried the stem winder. "Wound less than six hours before death took place." She looked up.

    "Is this the Stuart case?" she asked.

    "Yes," said Larry. "Do you know anything about it?"

    "Only what the Commissioner's told me." she replied. "Poor man! But I'm getting so used to horrors now that I'm almost hardened. I suppose one feels that way if one's a medical student. I was a nurse for two years in a blind asylum," she added, "and that helps to toughen you, doesn't it?" She smiled.

    "I suppose it does," said Larry thoughtfully, and wondered how young she had been when she started to work for her living. He put her at twenty-one and thought that was a fairly generous estimate of her age. "Do you like this work?" he asked.

    She nodded.

    "I love it," she said. "Sir John says that one of these days he's going to make me a—" She hesitated for a word.

    "A sleuth? Don't say you're going to be a sleuth," begged Larry. "I thought we had this business to ourselves. Female competition today—"

    She shook her head. "You're neglecting your work, Mr Holt," she said. "I've got as far as the watch." He chuckled a little and resumed his inspection.

    "Chain made of platinum and gold, length twelve inches, swivel at end, and container of a gold pencil—at least, I presume it was gold," he dictated.

    "The pencil wasn't found?"

    "No," she said. "I particularly asked the sergeant who brought the goods whether the pencil had been found."

    Larry looked at her in surprise. "Did you notice that?"

    "Oh yes, I noticed that too," said Diana calmly. "The knife has gone too."

    He looked across at her in genuine amazement. "What knife?" he asked.

    "I guessed it was a knife," said she. "The swivel is too large to be attached to a pencil only. If you look you will see a little ring—it has probably got entangled with the ring holding the pencil. It was broken when it came in, but I pressed it together. It looked as if somebody had wrenched it off. I guessed the knife," she said, "because men so often carry a little gold penknife there."

    "Or a cigar-cutter?" suggested Larry.

    "I thought of that," she said, nodding, "but they'd hardly have taken the trouble to nip off a cigar-cutter."

    "They?" he asked.

    "Whoever killed Stuart," she said quietly, "would have removed all weapons from his possession." He looked at the chain again and saw the other ring, and wondered why he had not noticed it before.

    "I think you're right," he said after a further examination. "The ring is much larger—it had slid up the chain, by the way—and there are distinct scratches where the knife was wrenched off. Hm!" He put down the object on the table, and looked at his own watch. "Have you seen the rest of the things?" he asked.

    She shook her head.

    "I've only examined the watch."

    He looked around for some receptacle, and saw a cupboard in the wall. "Is this empty?" he asked, and she nodded.