“’Our next step was to visit the customs people.  Their records were very complete.  They even had a portrait of Purtell, which proved him to have been Hume beyond a doubt.  Only a trifle of evidence had been secured against him—­not enough to convict—­and they were forced to release him.  This seems to have been Hume’s specialty.

“’However, through the customs services of other countries, they had learned quite a lot about him.  The authorities of Holland, Spain and France knew him as one of the leading spirits in a system of smuggling that had been going on for years.  Once Hume had been located in Antwerp, once at Hamburg, and for a long time at Bayonne.  This system of contraband had been broken up just before he had been arrested by the United States service.  A number of the criminals had been convicted; but Hume, with his usual luck, had escaped once more, because of lack of evidence against him.

“’Nothing could be learned of the movements of Hume between his arrest on the Baltic and his location here as a dealer in the curiosities of art.  And after his going into business here, he kept to himself a great deal.

“’But the drink habit caused him to frequent certain resorts, and it was at one of these that he first met Richard Morris, father to Allan Morris!’”

“Ah!” said Pendleton.  “So Hume knew Morris’s father.”

“I asked Fuller, in giving him his instructions, to have this fact established, if he could,” said Ashton-Kirk.  “That both Hume and the elder Morris were heavy drinkers caused me to think it possible.”

“Is that all there is to the report?”

“Almost.”  The investigator turned to the pages once more, and proceeded:  “’Hume and the elder Morris became quite intimate and were often seen together.  But what it was that formed the bond between them, no one knows, unless it be a deaf mute named Locke, who was frequently seen in their society and who seemed upon close terms with both.  But within a year after their first meeting, Hume broke with Morris.  This must have been serious, for it caused a marked enmity to spring up between them.  A number of people recall that Richard Morris frequently made threats against the other—­threats of personal violence and also of the law.  But before anything could come of these, if he really meant them, he died.

“’Thinking that Locke might be able to throw some light on this phase of the case, we have endeavored to locate him.  Up to this time we have met with no success; but we hope to learn something of him at an early date.’”

Ashton-Kirk laid the sheets down upon the table.

“There follows a list of the names of the people who have supplied this information and their addresses,” said he.  “Burgess is very thorough in his work.”

“Outside the fact that Hume was a scoundrel—­which we knew before—­and that he was acquainted with Locke and Allan Morris’s father, what does this report tell you?”