These lay on two
or three sheets of much crumpled paper of a peculiar quality.
"There you are!" said Drillford. "Those belonged to Mr. Ashton; there's
his name on the watch, and a mark of his inside the ring. They were found
early this morning, hidden, in the very place in which Hyde confessed
that he spent most of the night after Ashton's murder--a shed belonging
to one Fisher, a greengrocer, up the Harrow Road.
"Who found them?" demanded Felpham.
"Fisher himself," answered Drillford. "He was pottering about in his
shed before going to Covent Garden. He wanted some empty boxes, and in
pulling things about he found--these! Couldn't have made a more important
find, I think.
"Were these things loose?" asked Viner.
"Wrapped loosely in the paper they're lying on," replied Drillford.
Viner took the paper out of the drawer, examined it and lifted it
to his nose.
"I wonder, if Hyde really did put those things there," he said, "how Hyde
came to be carrying about with him these sheets of paper which had
certainly been used before for the wrappings of chemicals or drugs?"
Felpham pricked his ears.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195