"Good. Let me see what we have here." Gideon spread the guest lists out on top of his desk. He scanned the long lists of names of people who had been invited to various houses that had experienced robberies during the Season.

"Won't be an easy task to sort out the names of persons who was both invited to those homes and who also would have reason to know about them-caves, sir." Dobbs gestured toward the lists. "Hundreds of names to go through. The Fancy likes to give big parties."

"I can see it will take some time." Gideon ran his finger down one list. "I have a hunch our man is a fossil collector."

"Don't have to be a fossil collector, m'lord," Dobbs said. "Could just as easily be someone who was raised in the Upper Biddleton area or who had cause to visit there."

Gideon shook his head. "A casual visitor would not have been familiar enough with the caves to know about the cavern where we found the goods. Whoever chose that cave knew the place well. And the only reason anyone ever goes into those caves is to search for fossils."

"If you say so. Well, then, I'll leave these here with you and wait to hear from you concerning our next move."

"Thank you, Dobbs. You have been most helpful." Gideon glanced up as the little man got to his feet. "How did you manage to get so many lists?"

Dobbs's gnomish face crinkled into a grin. "Told 'em I wanted the lists as part of my reward for returnin' the stolen goods. They was all quick enough to hand 'em over."

Gideon smiled. "Much cheaper than paying a cash reward, of course."

"The Quality is quick enough to pay a fortune for a good horse or a fine piece of jewelry, but they tend to be downright close-fisted when it comes to paying for services from folks like me." Dobbs clapped his squashed hat on his head. "But as I'm workin' for you this time, I expect I'll get my reward. I checked around. Yer reputation for that sort of thing is sound. Everyone says you pay yer bills and don't try to dodge the tradesmen."

Gideon raised his brows. "Always nice to hear one has a good reputation in some quarters."

"In the quarters where I live, a reputation for settling accounts fair and square is the only kind of reputation that matters."

Mr. Humboldt's Museum was overwhelming and well worth the price of admission. His collection of fossils, skeletons, stuffed animals, and odd plants filled his entire townhouse from top to bottom. Not a single room had been spared. Even his bedroom contained exhibits and crates full of dusty skeletons, marine fossils, and other assorted items.

Harriet was thrilled when she realized the size of the museum.

"Just look at this place, Beth," she said to her maid. She stood staring at the row of rooms on the ground floor that were filled with treasures. Visitors wandered freely from one to the next, examining and exclaiming over the skulls of rhinoceroses and the lifeless bodies of stuffed snakes. "It is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful."

Beth glanced warily into the first room. She shuddered at the sight of the skeleton of a large shark. "Do I have to come with you, ma'am? This sort of stuff gives me the chills, it does."

"Very well, then, you can wait in the hall. I shall tour the museum on my own."

"Thank you, ma'am." Beth turned her attention to the young man who was collecting the admission fees from the trickle of visitors. She gave him a coy smile. The young man grinned boldly back.

Harriet ignored the byplay. "What is in that room?" she asked, indicating a door near the staircase that was closed.

The lad glanced at her. "That's Mr. Humboldt's private study, ma'am. Ain't no one goes in there, except him. Only room in the house what's closed to visitors."

"I see." Harriet started toward the staircase. "Very well, then, I believe I shall begin at the top of the house and work straight down to the bottom."

She climbed to the third floor and plunged into the first room full of exhibits.

It was heaven.

There were very few other visitors in the museum, certainly not enough to get in Harriet's way. Time passed quickly as she worked her way from the top story of the large house to the bottom, which was underground.

Although she was primarily searching for fossil teeth, Harriet kept getting distracted by fascinating exhibits.

She found a well-preserved fossil sea urchin in one case that was unlike any she had seen before. There were several other extremely interesting marine fossils housed with it. A variety of fossil fragments in another case held her attention for some time.

It took forever to go through all the drawers in all the cabinets in every room, but Harriet did not want to miss a single item. Each time she opened a drawer or peered into a glass case she told herself that she might be about to discover a tooth such as the one she had found in Upper Biddleton. With any luck it might be labeled. She would learn if someone else had already identified it.

Harriet saved the lower story of the house for last. The underground portion would normally have been used for the kitchen and servants' quarters in a real home, but Humboldt had turned it into a series of storage rooms for the museum. When Harriet went down the stairs she found herself quite alone. That suited her perfectly.

She found nothing but crates in two of the dark chambers. But at the end of the hall she opened the last door and discovered a shadowed room full of looming skeletons, some of them very large.

The lighting was quite poor. Two sputtering candles burned in wall sconces outside the last chamber. Harriet selected one and carried it inside. She used it to light the half-burned tapers in the wall sconces in the chamber. It was obvious no one came into the room very often.

The chamber was not only dark, it was cold. A thick layer of dust lay over everything, but Harriet paid no attention to that. Dirt and grime were part of fossil collecting.

She saw at once that there were several rows of tall cabinets in the dark room. Each cabinet contained dozens of drawers.

There was a fair chance she would find some teeth in drawers the size of these, Harriet decided happily.

But before she began investigating the cabinets, she paused to examine some of the strange relics that littered the room. There was a large chunk of stone sitting on a cabinet at the end of one aisle. Harriet looked closely and saw the delicate outline of a strange, spiny fish embedded in it.

Farther along that same aisle she found the dusty bones of several bizarre creatures that featured both fins and legs. Harriet studied them in wonder. She had never seen anything quite like them.

She found a chair in one corner and dragged it over to one of the cabinets which contained the strange fossils. She climbed up to get a better look at the skeletons.

A cloud of dust puffed upward as she leaned forward to touch an oddly shaped fin. Then she spotted the small pins holding the fin to the skeleton.

"Ah-hah," she muttered in satisfaction. "A forgery. I knew it. No wonder Mr. Humboldt has consigned you to the nether regions," she told the poor creature. "He probably paid good money for you, only to discover he had been fleeced."

She noticed the dust stains on her yellow pelisse as she climbed down from the chair. Belatedly she wished she had brought along an apron. Next time she would make it a point to do so.

She was standing on tiptoe to examine the skeleton of a very strange fish when she heard the door open behind her. It closed again very softly. Another museum visitor had found his way into Humboldt's last storage room. Harriet paid no attention until the newcomer started down the aisle of tall cabinets in which she was standing.

"Good afternoon, Harriet," Bryce Morland said from the far end of the aisle.

Harriet froze, not only because his voice was the last one she had expected to hear, but because of the undercurrent of menace in it. She turned to face him.