"
"Right," said Harley shortly. "May I ask you to report the
result to me, Wessex?"
"I will report without fail."
III
ALI OF CAIRO
It was not until the evening of the following day that Harley
rang me up, and:
"I want you to come round at once," he said urgently. "The
Deepbrow case is developing along lines which I confess I had
anticipated, but which are dramatic nevertheless."
Knowing that Harley did not lightly make such an assertion, I put
aside the work upon which I was engaged and hurried around to
Chancery Lane. I found my friend, pipe in mouth, walking up and
down his smoke-laden study in a state which I knew to betoken
suppressed excitement, and:
"Did Wessex find your photographer?" I asked on entering.
"Yes," he replied. "A first-class man, as I had anticipated. As
I had further anticipated he did a number of copies of the
picture for the foreign gentleman--about fifty, in fact!"
"Fifty!"
"Yes! Does the significance of that fact strike you?" asked
Harley, a queer smile stealing across his tanned, clean-shaven
face.
"It is an extraordinary thing for even an ardent admirer to have
so many reproductions done of the same picture!"
"It is! I will show you now what I found trodden into one of the
footprints where the struggle took place beside the car.
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