the house?"

"I should say it is, ma'am," answered the inspector. "He was seen
outside here last night by one of our men, anyway."

The landlady uttered an expression of distress, and opening a side-door,
motioned them to step into her parlour.

"Which of them is it?" she asked anxiously. "There's two--came together
last night, they did--a tall one and a short one. Dear, dear me!--is it
a bad accident, now, inspector?"

"The man's dead, ma'am," replied Mitchington grimly. "And we want to
know who he is. Have you got his name--and the other gentleman's?"

Mrs. Partingley uttered another exclamation of distress and
astonishment, lifting her plump hands in horror. But her business
faculties remained alive, and she made haste to produce a big visitors'
book and to spread it open before her callers.

"There it is!" she said, pointing to the two last entries. "That's the
short gentleman's name--Mr. John Braden, London. And that's the
tall one's--Mr. Christopher Dellingham--also London. Tourists, of
course--we've never seen either of them before."

"Came together, you say, Mrs. Partingley?" asked Mitchington. "When was
that, now?"

"Just before dinner, last night," answered the landlady. "They'd
evidently come in by the London train--that gets in at six-forty, as you
know. They came here together, and they'd dinner together, and spent the
evening together. Of course, we took them for friends. But they didn't
go out together this morning, though they'd breakfast together. After
breakfast, Mr. Dellingham asked me the way to the old Manor Mill, and
he went off there, so I concluded. Mr. Braden, he hung about a bit,
studying a local directory I'd lent him, and after a while he asked me
if he could hire a trap to take him out to Saxonsteade this afternoon.
Of course, I said he could, and he arranged for it to be ready at
two-thirty. Then he went out, and across the market towards the
Cathedral. And that," concluded Mrs. Partingley, "is about all I know,
gentlemen."

"Saxonsteade, eh?" remarked Mitchington. "Did he say anything about his
reasons for going there?"

"Well, yes, he did," replied the landlady. "For he asked me if I thought
he'd be likely to find the Duke at home at that time of day. I said I
knew his Grace was at Saxonsteade just now, and that I should think the
middle of the afternoon would be a good time."

"He didn't tell you his business with the Duke?" asked Mitchington.

"Not a word!" said the land