aw no one hanging about the place as you left it?"

"Not that I can remember; if I did it made no impression on me."

"But didn't you see Shrimplin?" asked Moxlow quickly.

"Oh, come, Moxlow, you can't play the sleuth,--that was afterward, you
know it was!"

"Afterward--"

"Yes, just as I was starting for the general's place, fully an hour
later."

"In the meantime you had been where--"

"From McBride's store I went to my rooms. I remained there until it was
time to start for the Herberts', and as I intended to walk out I started
earlier than I otherwise should have done."

"Then you were coming from your rooms when you met Shrimplin?"

"Yes, it was just six o'clock when I stopped to speak to him."

"Shrimplin was the only person you met as you crossed the Square?"

"As far as I can remember now, I saw no one but Shrimp."

"And just where did you meet him, North?" asked Moxlow.

"On the corner, near McBride's store."

"Do you know whether he had just driven into the Square or not?"

"No, I, don't know that; it was snowing hard and I came upon him
suddenly."

"You continued on your way out of town after speaking with him, North?"

"Yes."

"And later, at eleven o'clock, as you were returning to town you met a
stranger, probably a countryman, you say, who told you that McBride had
been murdered?"

"Yes, you have that all straight."

"On your return to town you went where?"

"To my rooms again and finished packing."

"Did that take you two hours?"

"No, but I had a lot of things to see to there."

"What?" asked Moxlow.

"Oh, papers to destroy, and things of that sort that kept me pretty busy
until train-time."

"You walked to the depot?"

"Yes, I was too late for the hotel bus; in fact, I barely caught the
train. I just had time to jump aboard as it pulled out."

"Excuse me a moment, North!" said Moxlow as he rose from his chair.

He quitted the room and North heard him pass down the hall.

"It's a bad business," said Taylor.

"And you haven't a suspicion as to the guilty man?"

"No, as Moxlow says, we haven't a clue to go on. It's incredible though,
isn't it, that a crime like that could have been committed here almost
in broad daylight, and its perpetrator get away without leaving a trace
behind?"

"It _is_ incredible," agreed North, and they lapsed into silence.

North thought of Elizabeth. He would slip out to Idle Hour that
afternoon or evening; he couldn't leave Mount Hope w