"Not really; the numbers are different."
"Oh! oh! oh!" murmured the detective with interest, "it would seem that this assassin is a very ingenious fellow in hiding his trail. So the numbers are different!"
"Yes, every number I have a list here of the numbers marked on the bank notes I bestowed on Mr. Grent. Look for yourself, Mr. Policeman, there is no number in the notes equal to the numbers in the list. It is strange!"
"It is maddening!" cried Torry with vexation. "I do not believe we shall ever unravel this mystery. Let me see."
He took the list presented by Manuel, and compared the numbers on it with those of the bank notes; but not in one instance were they the same. There were twenty notes, each for five hundred pounds, in all ten thousand; but the numbers in every case were different.
"It is strange, as you say, Captain Manuel," observed Torry, frowning. "Five hundred pound bank notes are not easily changed; yet the assassin has changed twenty of them, and we cannot trace any one of the transactions."
"Why do you insist that the assassin changed the notes?" asked Vass, a trifle pettishly.
"Because I believe that these notes were the motive of this murder of Mr. Grent."
"In that case he would have had them in his possession on the night he was murdered; whereas----"
"Whereas, my dear Mr. Vass, you deny that he took them out of the private safe."