David Steel the gentleman who found a man half murdered
in his house in Brighton?"
"The same. But don't you know who the injured man was?"
"You don't mean to say it was Van Sneck?" Rawlins cried.
Chris nodded gravely. Rawlins looked like a man who was groping about in
a sudden dazzle of blinding light.
"I begin to understand," he muttered. "The scoundrel!"
"After that I will resume," Chris said. "You must understand that Mr.
Steel was a stranger to us. We hit upon the idea of interviewing him
anonymously, so to speak, and we were going to give him a gun-metal
cigar-case mounted in diamonds. A friend of mine purchased that
cigar-case at Lockhart's. Mind you, Reginald Henson knew all about this.
The same day Henson's tool, Van Sneck, purchased a similar case from
Walen's--a case really procured for your approval--and later on in the
day the case passed from Van Sneck to Henson, who dexterously changed
the cases."
"Complex," Rawlins muttered. "But I begin to see what is coming."
"The cases were changed, and the one from Walen's in due course became
Mr. Steel's. Now note where Henson's diabolical cunning comes in.
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