o has charge
of the case against Captain Sotherst, to be present. I will tell you."

Mr. Dory nodded, a little impatiently.

"Unless you have something very definite to say," he remarked, "I think
it would be as well to postpone any general discussion of this matter
until after the inquest. I must warn you that so far as I, personally,
am concerned, I must absolutely decline to allude to the subject at all.
It would be most unprofessional."

"I have something definite to say," Peter Ruff declared, mildly.

Lady Mary's eyes flashed with hope--Letty Shaw leaned forward in her
chair with white, drawn face.

"Let it be understood," Peter Ruff said, with a slight note of gravity
creeping into his tone, "that I am here solely as the agent of Lady
Mary Sotherst. I am paid and employed by her. My sole object is on
her behalf, therefore, to discover proof of the innocence of Captain
Sotherst. I take it, however," he added, turning towards the drooping
figure in the easy-chair, "that Miss Shaw is as anxious to have the
truth known."

"Of course! Of course!" she murmured.

"In France," Peter Ruff continued, "there is a somewhat curious custom,
which, despite a certain theatricality, yet has its points. The scene of
a crime is visited, and its events, so far as may be, reconstructed. Let
us suppose for a moment that we are now engaged upon something of the
sort."

Letty Shaw shrank back in her chair. Her thin white fingers were
gripping its sides. Her eyes seemed to look upon terrible things.

"It is too--awful!" she faltered.

"Madam," Peter Ruff said, firmly, "we seek the truth. Be so good as to
humour me in this. Dory, will you go to the front door, stand upon the
mat--so? You are Captain Sotherst--you have just entered. I am Austen
Abbott. You, Miss Shaw, have just ordered me from the room. You see,
I move toward the door. I open it--so. Miss Shaw," he added, turning
swiftly towards her, "once more will you assure me that every one who
was in the flat that night, with the exception of your domestic servant,
is present now?"

"Yes," she murmured.

"Good! Then who," he asked, suddenly pointing to a door on the
left--"who is in that room?"

They had all crowded after him to the threshold--thronging around him as
he stood face to face with John Dory. His finger never wavered--it
was pointing steadily towards that closed door a few feet to the left.
Suddenly Letty Shaw rushed past them with a loud shriek.

"You sh