"No," I said, "and I don't."

"I have allowed nothing to be touched," continued Gatton, "and I am
going around there now to make a final attempt to unravel the mystery
of how Sir Marcus met his death."

"There is one detail," said I, "which it seems impossible to fit into
its proper place in the scheme. The figure of Bâst painted upon the
crate--you have that at Scotland Yard--and the little image of the
goddess which was stolen from my table last night."

Gatton stood up, uttering a sigh.

"I have always found, Mr. Addison," he replied, "that it is these
outstanding features of a case, these pieces which don't seem to fit,
that are the most valuable clews. It's the apparently simple cases in
which there is no outstanding point that are the most baffling."

I laughed shortly.

"One could not very well complain of the lack of such features in 'the
_Oritoga_ mystery,'" I said. "As a confrère of mine remarked when the
body of Sir Marcus was discovered in the crate, the whole thing is as
mad as 'Alice in Wonderland'!"

Gatton presently departed for the Red House and I accompanied him, for
I was intensely curious to learn by what means the murder of Sir
Marcus had been accomplished. As I proposed later in the morning to
call on Isobel, Coates drove Gatton and myself as far as the Red House