Last evening in the railway station at Naples, the company’s servants found a man’s coat in the rack of a first-class carriage of the train from Rome. In the inside pocket of this coat, which is of a dark brown colour, was an unfastened envelope containing six thousand-franc notes. There were no other papers by which to identify the missing owner. If there has been foul play, it is difficult to account for the fact that such a considerable sum of money should have been left in the victim’s coat; it may, at any rate, be inferred that the motive was not robbery.
There were no traces of a struggle to be seen in the compartment; but under one of the seats a man’s shirt-cuff was discovered with the link attached; this article was in the shape of two cats’ heads, linked together by a small silver-gilt chain, and carved out of a semi-transparent quartz, known as opalescent feldspar, and commonly called moonstone by jewellers.
A thorough investigation of the railway line is being made.
Lafcadio crumpled the paper up in his hand.
“What! Carola’s sleeve-links now! The old boy is a regular public meeting-place!”
He turned the page and read in the stop-press news:
RECENTISSIME
DEAD BODY FOUND ON RAILWAY LINE
Without waiting to read further, Lafcadio hurried to the Grand Hotel. He slipped his visiting-card into an envelope after adding the following words underneath his name:
Lafcadio Wluiki
would be glad to know whether Count Julius de Baraglioul is not in need of a secretary.