By the way, where was the cigar-case? On the whole it would be just as well to lock the case away till he could discover some reasonable excuse for its possession. His mother would be pretty sure to ask where it came from, and David could not prevaricate so far as she was concerned. But the cigar-case was not to be found, and David was forced to the conclusion that he had left it in Mossa's office.
A little annoyed with himself he took up the evening _Argus_. There was half a column devoted to the strange case at Downend Terrace, and just over it a late advertisement to the effect that a gun-metal cigar-case had been found and was in the hands of the police awaiting an owner.
David slipped from the house and caught a 'bus in St. George's Road.
At the police-station he learnt that Inspector Marley was still on the premises. Marley came forward gravely. He had a few questions to ask, but nothing to tell.
"And now perhaps you can give me some information?" David said, "You are advertising in to-night's _Argus_ a gun-metal cigar-case set with diamonds."
"Ah," Marley said, eagerly, "can you tell us anything about it?"
"Nothing beyond the fact that I hope to satisfy you that the case is mine."
Marley stared open-mouthed at David for a moment, and then relapsed into his sapless official manner. He might have been a detective cross-examining a suspected criminal.
"Why this mystery?" David asked. "I have lost a gun-metal cigar-case set with diamonds, and I see a similar article is noted as found by the police. I lost it this morning, and I shrewdly suspect that I left it behind me at the office of Mr. Mossa."
"The case was sent here by Mr. Mossa himself," Marley admitted.
"Then, of course, it is mine. I had to give Mr. Mossa my opinion of him this morning, and by way of spiting me he sent that case here, hoping, perhaps, that I should not recover it. You know the case Marley--it was lying on the floor of my conservatory last night."
"I did notice a gun-metal case there," Marley said, cautiously.
"As a matter of fact, you called my attention to it and asked if it was mine."
"And you said at first that it wasn't, sir."
"Well, you must make allowances for my then frame of mind," David laughed. "I rather gather from your manner that somebody else has been after the case; if that is so, you are right to be reticent. Still, it is in your hands to settle the matter on the spot. All you have to do is to open the case, and if you fail to find my initials, D.S., scratched in the left-hand top corner, then I have lost my property and the other fellow has found his."