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Events are unfolding rapidly in the saga of former prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian deal maker Karlheinz Schreiber. Mr. Schreiber made new allegations in an affidavit he filed last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he would appoint an independent third party to advise him, Mr. Mulroney called for a full public inquiry to clear the air and, yesterday, Mr. Harper said an inquiry is on the way. Meanwhile, Mr. Schreiber, who has been sitting in a Toronto detention centre awaiting extradition to Germany if his last-ditch legal appeals fail, may soon be flown to another continent -- which would make interviewing him more difficult, though not impossible, when Mr. Harper's inquiry is held.

Now, finally, a piece falls into the puzzle that should have been in place days ago. The Mounties are reviewing Mr. Schreiber's latest allegations to decide whether there should be a formal police investigation.

As Mr. Harper observed in a statement last week, much of the dispute between Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Schreiber may be a private matter, but two items in particular are of public concern. They touch on the total of $300,000 in cash payments that Mr. Schreiber made to Mr. Mulroney on three occasions in 1993 and 1994, in hotels in Montreal and in New York. It remains unclear what the money was for. A spokesman for Mr. Mulroney has said it was for assistance with Mr. Schreiber's pasta business. Mr. Schreiber has said all he received from Mr. Mulroney in that regard was a brochure from an agricultural company. The first item of concern is Mr. Schreiber's allegation that Mr. Mulroney met with him while still in office about an agreement to pay Mr. Mulroney the $300,000. The second is, in Mr. Harper's words, "whether these allegations, if true, have any bearing on the settlement reached in January, 1997." Mr. Mulroney had filed a defamation suit against the government after government lawyers, in a 1995 letter to Swiss authorities, accused Mr. Mulroney of illegal activities in connection with Air Canada's 1988 purchase of 34 Airbus jetliners. In 1997, the government apologized to Mr. Mulroney and paid $2.1-million.

Mr. Schreiber's allegations have created this turmoil. It is possible that Mr. Schreiber may be sent off soon to Germany to face charges there of bribery and fraud. If any of Mr. Schreiber's accusations suggest illegal activity on anyone's part, the Crown and the RCMP have every ground to demand that Mr. Schreiber provide them with any documents in his possession that might buttress the allegations he has been making. Mr. Schreiber has boasted of his extensive files of past correspondence and hinted at "surprises" he has in store. These are boasts the police should be calling him on.

To be sure, Mr. Schreiber has been more cagy than forthcoming in the past. A senior Mountie who was quoted in a Globe story last Feb. 2 all but threw up his hands in the face of Mr. Schreiber's lack of co-operation - "You've got to say, 'Just what the heck [has] this guy got? How credible is it?' " -- before saying it would be wrong not to send Mr. Schreiber to face justice in Germany after an extradition battle of eight years. "It's an awfully long time, and to be this close to the door ... and then to say, 'Sorry, we've changed our minds.' Countries just don't operate that way."

But countries have the right to operate that way if they genuinely believe there is something important at stake. In fact, since Mr. Schreiber has been a Canadian citizen since 1982, the extradition treaty between Canada and Germany states explicitly that Canada does not have to extradite him. (If citizenship were the only grounds for that decision, however, Germany could ask Canada to prosecute Mr. Schreiber in Canada on the German charges.) The question, surely, is whether Mr. Schreiber has evidence of wrongdoing that would make it in Canada's interest to delay his departure. If a lengthy and expensive public inquiry or a possible criminal investigation hinges on Mr. Schreiber's latest affidavit, it is the job of the Crown and the police to determine whether Mr. Schreiber truly has something to justify that inquiry.