"I noticed last night, when I was down on my knees following the trail of the _Huile Violette_, that there was a section of the flooring which has evidently been raised lately, as it was fastened down with new nails. Locate the place for me--it's over their somewhere--and stand there while I do a little measuring and counting."
Narkom moved over in the direction indicated, searched about for a time with a magnifying glass, and finally announced the discovery of the place he had been set to look for.
"Good heavens above, old chap, how you notice things! Fancy your remarking that when you were looking for something totally different! I say what on earth are you doing?"
"Measuring," replied Cleek, stepping off the distance between the spot where the body hung and that where Narkom knelt. "Three feet, one yard; three yards---- No, that won't do. 'Nine feet from the body' doesn't work out, so it's not that. Nine paces are impossible--room's too short--and nine boards---- Hum-m-m! That's poorer than the rest--doesn't go half the way. Clearly then, if my theory is correct, it's _not_ the body that's the starting point. How about the mantelpiece then? Let's have a try. Nine feet? No go! Nine boards, then? Oh, piffle! that's worse than ever. It leads off in a totally different direction. But stop a bit! These boards run up and down the room, not across it; and as it is undoubted that the measurement goes to the left, why, two and four make six. Hum-m-m! Six feet from the corner of the mantelpiece to----Hullo! that brings me exactly opposite to where you stand, doesn't it? And counting the board between us runs to--one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine! Exactly nine boards across the room! Got it, by Jupiter! Three paces from the body bring one to the mantelpiece. And paces are usually designated in a diagram by X's. And nine boards across the room does the trick! Letters, she said, letters! That was the first clue. Letters that might fall into Margot's hands; and as that dead wretch was Margot's ally once upon a time, and might threaten to give the things over to her if his demands were not acceded to---- Victoria! He will have hidden them there, unless I'm the biggest kind of an ass, and can no longer put two and two together!"