"I have inspected it," replied Thorndyke, "and I may remark that it is
useless to wrench at that key, because I have hampered the lock."
"The devil you have!" shouted Raggerton.
"Yes; you see, I am expecting a police-officer with a search warrant, so
I wished to keep everything intact."
Raggerton turned livid with mingled fear and rage. He stalked up to
Thorndyke with a threatening air, but, suddenly altering his mind,
exclaimed, "I must see to this!" and flung out of the room.
Thorndyke took a key from his pocket, and, having locked the door,
turned to the closet. Having taken out the key to unhamper the lock with
a stout wire, he reinserted it and unlocked the door. As we entered, we
found ourselves in a narrow closet, similar to the one in the other
room, but darker, owing to the absence of a mirror. A few clothes hung
from the pegs, and when Thorndyke had lit a candle that stood on a
shelf, we could see more of the details.
"Here are some of the properties," said Thorndyke. He pointed to a peg
from which hung a long, blue silk gown of Chinese make, a mandarin's
cap, with a pigtail attached to it, and a beautifully-made papier-mache
mask.
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