fford the
slightest clew. The Squire's watch was still in the watch pocket at the
head of the bed, his purse was on a small table beside him; apparently
nothing had been touched in the room.

"If robbery was the object," Sir Charles said gravely, "it has evidently
not been carried out, and it is probable that Mr. Thorndyke was partly
woke by the opening of the window, and that he was not thoroughly
aroused until the man was close to his bed; then he leapt out and seized
him. Probably the stab was, as Dr. Holloway assures us, instantly fatal,
and he may have fallen so heavily that the man, fearing that the house
would be alarmed at the sound, at once fled, without even waiting to
snatch up the purse. The whole thing is so clear that it is scarcely
necessary to ask any further questions. Of course, there must be an
inquest tomorrow. I should like when I go down to ask the gardener
where he left the ladder yesterday. Have you examined the ground for
footmarks?"

"Yes, Sir Charles, but you see it was a pretty hard frost last night,
and I cannot find any marks at all. The ground must have been like iron
about the time when the ladder was placed there."

The gardener, on being called in, said that the ladder was always hung
up outside the shed at the back of the house; there was a chain round
it, and he had found that morning that one of the links had been filed
through.

"The Squire was most particular about its being locked, as Mr. Mark
knows, so that it could not be used by any ill disposed chaps who might
come along at night. The key of the padlock was always hung on a nail
round the other side of the shed. The Squire knew of it, and so did Mr.
Mark and me; so that while it was out of the way of the eyes of a thief,
any of us could run and get it and undo the padlock in a minute in case
of fire or anything of that sort. I have not used the ladder, maybe,
for a fortnight, but I know that it was hanging in its place yesterday
afternoon."

"I expect the fellow was prowling about here for some time," Mark said.
"I was chatting with my father in the library when I thought I heard a
noise, and I threw open the window, which had by some carelessness been
left a little open, and went out, and listened for nearly an hour, but I
could hear nothing, and put it down to the fact that I was nervous owing
to what had happened early in the evening, and that the noise was simply
fancy, or that the frost had caused a dry branch of on