Beppo had a cousin who works with Gelder, and from him he found out which shops had bought the busts. He managed to find a job with Morse Hudson, and in that way tracked down three of them. The pearl was not there. Then, with the help of some Italian employees, he succeeded in finding out where the other three busts had gone. The first was at Harker's. There he was caught by his confederate, who blamed Beppo for the loss of the pearl. In the scuffle which followed, Beppo stabbed his confederate.'

'If Beppo was his confederate, why did he carry his photograph?' I asked.

'So that when he was looking for Beppo he could show it to people and ask if they had seen him. That was the obvious reason. Well, after the murder I calculated that Beppo would probably hurry rather than delay his movements. He would fear that the police would know his secret, and so he hastened on before they should get ahead of him. Of course, I did not know if he had found the pearl in Harker's bust. I was not even certain that he was after the pearl, but it was evident to me that he was looking for something, since he carried the bust past the other houses so that he could break it in the garden which had a lamp nearby.

As I told you, Harker's bust was one in three that were left, so the chances were exactly two to one against the pearl being inside it. There remained two busts, and it was obvious that Beppo would go for the London one first. I warned the inmates of the house, so that no-one else would get hurt. Then we went there, with the happiest results. By that time, of course, I knew for certain that it was the Borgia pearl that we were after. The name of the murdered man linked the one event with the other. There only remained a single bust - the Reading one - and the pearl must be there. I bought it in your presence from the owner - and there it lies.'