V
In less than a day or two the identity of the victim of the burnt barnwas established. For Hewitt had his idea, and he communicated withPlummer, of Scotland Yard. The man with the buttoned boots and thesketch-book was the artist who had been staying at the cottage in thevillage, but who, singularly enough, had never been seen to draw, andhad left no drawings behind him. He had warned the people of the cottagethat he might be away for a night or two, and he had stayed away for twonights before; so that his disappearance did not disturb them, and whenthey heard that Mr. Peytral's body had been found in the barn theyaccepted the news as fact. They recognised at once a photograph producedby Plummer as that of their late lodger. And the photograph had beenprocured from Messrs. Kingsley, Bell and Dalton, the intended victims inthe bond case, and it was one of Henning, their vanished correspondenceclerk!
That his death would be convenient to Mayes, the greater scoundrel, wasplain enough. The bond robbery had been brought to naught, thanks toMartin Hewitt, and Henning was now useless. Worse, he might be caught,or give himself up, and was thus a perpetual danger. And probably hewanted money. This being so, it was a singular fact that at the inquestthe surgeon who had examined the wound gave it as his most positiveopinion that it had been self-inflicted. And it was inflicted with arazor, Henning's own, as was very clearly proved after inquiry. For therazor was found in the barn by the police, entangled with the blackenedframe of an old lantern. Here was still another puzzle; one to which thefinal revelation of the mystery of the Red Triangle gave an answer, aswill be seen in due place.
THE CASE OF THE ADMIRALTY CODE