have two backings? There was
nothing to show that this was so."

"I will tell you, Mrs. Quintard. You helped me."

"I helped you?"

"Yes. You remember the memorandum you gave me? In it you mentioned
pasting photographs. But this was not enough in itself to lead me to
examine those on the mantel, if you had not given me another suggestion
a little while before. We did not tell you this, Mrs. Quintard, at the
time, but during the search we were making here that day, you had a
lapse into that peculiar state which induces you to walk in your sleep.
It was a short one, lasting but a moment, but in a moment one can speak,
and, this you did--"

"Spoke? I spoke?"

"Yes, you uttered the word 'paper!' not the paper, but 'paper!' and
reached out towards the shears. Though I had not much time to think of
it then, afterwards upon reading your memorandum I recalled your words,
and asked myself if it was not paper to cut, rather than to hide, you
wanted. If it was to cut, and you were but repeating the experience
of the night before, then the room should contain some remnants of cut
paper. Had we seen any? Yes, in the basket, under the desk we had taken
out and thrown back again a strip or so of wrapping paper, which, if my
memory did not fail me, showed a clean-cut edge. To pull this strip out
again and spread it flat upon the desk was the work of a minute, and
what I saw led me to look all over the room, not now for the folded
document, but for a square of brown paper, such as had been taken out
of this larger sheet. Was I successful? Not for a long while, but when
I came to the photographs on the mantel and saw how nearly they
corresponded in shape and size to what I was looking for, I recalled
again your fancy for mounting photographs and felt that the mystery was
solved.

"A glance at the back of one of them brought disappointment, but when I
turned about its mate--You know what I found underneath the outer paper.
You had laid the will against the original backing and simply pasted
another one over it.

"That the discovery came in time to cut short a very painful interview
has made me joyful for a week.

"And now may I see the children?"

END OF PROBLEM V

PROBLEM VI. THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS

Miss Strange was not in a responsive mood. This her employer had
observed on first entering; yet he showed no hesitation in laying on
the table behind which she had ensconced herself in the attitude of one
besieged, an enve