me with the uncovered eye. He evidently had slipped hastily
into his clothes; his candle was lighted, and I noticed that his hands
and face were wet, as if he too had been washing."

"It strikes me that there was an unusual amount of hand-washing," I
here observed, "considering the hour of night. Had the household
retired?"

"Why--yes, sir--we were supposed to have done so. But Mr. Maillot at
once explained why his hands were wet. As he threw open the door,
which he did in an angry manner, he asked me what the devil was the
matter. I replied that I did n't know. He then stated that he thought
the roof had caved in; that the tumult had awakened him, and that in
springing out of bed he had nearly knocked an eye out by colliding with
some piece of furniture. The pain was for a moment so intense, he
said, that he had forgotten all about the noise; so he had lighted a
candle and bathed the injured eye. It was already beginning to swell
and show signs of discoloration. On my remarking that it was strange
the noise hadn't roused Mr. Page, Mr. Maillot at once seized his candle
and preceded me into the hall. He was the first to find Mr. Page's
body.

"So far as we could determine, he was quite dead. Mr. Maillot at once
warned me not to molest anything--he 's a lawyer, I believe--and we
agreed that I should notify the police while he remained to guard the
house."

Such was Burke's story of the midnight tragedy. Further questioning
elicited the assertion that he was utterly unable to account for
Maillot's presence in the house; that he had never seen him before, and
that he was sure the young man's call had been unexpected by Mr. Page,
as the latter had, the last thing the previous evening at his office,
instructed Burke to procure a number of specified papers from the
file-case, and bring them to the house after supper.

Burke believed it to have been his employer's intention to go through
these documents with him, for the purpose of selecting certain ones
which had to do with a contemplated business trip to Duluth; but
Maillot had arrived about seven o'clock, and he and Mr. Page had at
once repaired to the library, where they remained until after eleven
o'clock.

Burke had busied himself with other matters until convinced that, as
his employer had doubtless given over the Duluth journey, his services
would not be required; whereupon he had retired to his own room.

Such minor details were added: the only se