might have been concealed in the copper box?" I asked.
"To be sure, Mr. Craye! Sir Charles Sperrigoe suspected—does suspect. That's what he sent me up here for—to take a preliminary look round. Then—came himself. Gone back now—but kept me here for a day or two. To watch Bickerdale—as I said. And last night, just as I was hoping to worm something out of Bickerdale and his son-in-law, that ratty little chap—Weech—in walks Mr. Parslewe!"
"And did—what?" I asked.
He smiled, enigmatically.
"Mr. Parslewe, sir, is an odd gentleman!" he answered. "You'll know that by now, I think, Mr. Craye, though I understand you're almost a stranger to him. Well—Mr. Parslewe, he lost no time. He told Bickerdale that he knew he'd found a document in a secret place in that copper box—he'd the copper box with him, and he showed us the trick of opening it."
"Oh, he did, did he?" I interrupted, in surprise. "Found it out, eh?"
"He knew it, anyway," replied Pawley.
