The workmen began to scoop out the sawdust with their hands; one of them, evidently desirous of making sure that no body was in the coffin, thrust down his fingers at various places along its length.  He, too, laughed.

“The coffin’s weighted with lead!” he remarked.  “See!”

And tearing the sawdust aside, he showed those around him that at three intervals bars of lead had been tightly wedged into the coffin where the head, the middle, and the feet of a corpse would have rested.

“Done it cleverly,” he remarked, looking round.  “You see how these weights have been adjusted.  When a body’s laid out in a coffin, you know, all the weight’s in the end where the head and trunk rest.  Here you see the heaviest bar of lead is in the middle; the lightest at the feet.  Clever!”

“Clear out all the sawdust,” said some one.  “Let’s see if there’s anything else.”

There was something else.  At the bottom of the coffin two bundles of papers, tied up with pink tape.  The legal gentlemen present immediately manifested great interest in these.  So did Spargo, who, pulling Breton along with him, forced his way to where the officials from the Home Office and the solicitor sent by the Watchman were hastily examining their discoveries.

The first bundle of papers opened evidently related to transactions at Market Milcaster:  Spargo caught glimpses of names that were familiar to him, Mr. Quarterpage’s amongst them.  He was not at all astonished to see these things.  But he was something more than astonished when, on the second parcel being opened, a quantity of papers relating to Cloudhampton and the Hearth and Home Mutual Benefit Society were revealed.  He gave a hasty glance at these and drew Breton aside.

“It strikes me we’ve found a good deal more than we ever bargained for!” he exclaimed.  “Didn’t Aylmore say that the real culprit at Cloudhampton was another man—­his clerk or something of that sort?”

“He did,” agreed Breton.  “He insists on it.”

“Then this fellow Chamberlayne must have been the man,” said Spargo.  “He came to Market Milcaster from the north.  What’ll be done with those papers?” he asked, turning to the officials.

“We are going to seal them up at once, and take them to London,” replied the principal person in authority.  “They will be quite safe, Mr. Spargo; have no fear.  We don’t know what they may reveal.”

“You don’t, indeed!” said Spargo.  “But I may as well tell you that I have a strong belief that they’ll reveal a good deal that nobody dreams of, so take the greatest care of them.”

Then, without waiting for further talk with any one, Spargo hurried Breton out of the cemetery.  At the gate, he seized him by the arm.

“Now, then, Breton!” he commanded.  “Out with it!”

“With what?”

“You promised to tell me something—­a great deal, you said—­if we found that coffin empty.  It is empty.  Come on—­quick!”