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For a moment there was dead silence. Then a gasp of amazement greeted the staggering charge. For myself, I confess that I sat as though turned to stone.

"Oh, Jonah," breathed Jill, "are you sure?"

Her brother stepped to the table and laid upon it two wads. These were of cotton wool, were stained a faint brown and fairly reeked of tobacco.

"These wads were in the fireplace when Boy woke me up. They were almost the first thing I saw. If you remember, I was lying close to the grate. No one employs them but Casca. They're made for the cigarette-tube we gave him last year. Now Casca had not been smoking when we went down."

"That's right," cried Piers. "When I took him the box, he refused. He said that one oughtn't to smoke just before a meal."

"It follows," continued my cousin, "that Casca smoked quite a lot while we were asleep."

"But it may have been the Plazas," cried Adèle. "They may have pinched his tube, and----"

"If they did, they took the trouble to give it him back. He was using it yesterday morning, before he left the hotel."