“I have thought of that, but the explanation does not satisfy me, for, from the expression of his face—” Freyberger stopped.
“Yes?”
“Well, I am convinced he saw something worse than an ordinary human head.”
“Remember that to open a bag and find a grizzly thing like that would give even the most stout-hearted man a shock.”
Freyberger shook his head. “There was a look of wild horror on his face that was caused, by what I know not, by what I even fail to imagine, but by something, I am very sure, much worse than the sight of a human head. I can almost fancy—”
“Well?”
Freyberger gave a little laugh, as if at the idea that had struck him. “I can almost fancy a man dying with an expression on his face like that after he had seen the—unimaginable. Excuse me, I am a German by birth, and we Germans have wild thoughts sometimes. Let me be practical. With your permission I will telephone now to Coutts’s, they are Sir Anthony’s bankers; it may be as well to see if they have any knowledge of his movements.”
“Use the telephone,” replied the Chief.
Freyberger went to the instrument, spoke through it, received an answer, and spoke again. Then he listened attentively, and as he listened a faint smile stole over his face.
“He has been there at ten o’clock this morning, just as they opened, taken the box containing his late wife’s jewels, given a receipt for it, and departed. He evidently determined to collect all his resources. He has done it with great coolness. No professional criminal could have done it better.”