He turned away from the instrument and was crossing the room towards his cigar cabinet. Suddenly he stopped. He looked intently towards the sideboard.
“What is it?” Lenora asked.
He did not answer. She followed the direction of his gaze. Exactly in the same spot as before reposed another but somewhat larger black box, of the same shape and material as the previous one.
“Say, who put that there?” he demanded.
Lenora shook her head.
“I locked the door when we went out,” she assured him.
Quest took the box into his hands and removed the lid. It seemed half full of cotton-wool. On the top were a few lines of writing and beneath them the signature of the parted hands. He read the form out slowly:
“Drop all investigation. The hands that return these jewels command it.”
Quest raised the cotton-wool. Beneath lay Mrs. Rheinholdt’s necklace!