He must, therefore, have sent these diamonds to the person, whoever he may be, who had the keeping of his other jewels and of his money.

This certainly points to a bank." "There is a sensible conjecture.

Yes, there is something in that.

He certainly could not have carried about him 50,000 pounds in gold and as much in jewelry; it would have been the act of a madman, and Colonel Thorndyke, although eccentric and cranky, was not mad.

But, on the other hand, he may have carried about a banker's passbook, or what is equivalent to it, for the amount that had been deposited with a native banker or agent, together with a receipt for the box containing the jewels, and this he might have hidden with the diamonds." "I don't think that he would have done that; there could have been no object for his putting the power of demanding his money and valuables out of his possession." "Well, well," the lawyer said testily, "it is of no use arguing now what he might or might not have done.