ne pillar supporting
the porch roof at the corner, and, after walking quickly along the path
a few steps, reach and re-enter the house through the front door, and
appear almost at once among the others who had gathered in the upper
hall as soon as the tragedy was known? I remembered at once that Miss
Temple had appeared in a loose dressing gown. Would she, then, have had
time to throw off her dress so quickly, wet and muddy as it must have
been, and to change her shoes for slippers? Where were these shoes, I
wondered, if this train of reasoning was correct, and would their
condition prove that she had been out of the house during the night? As
these thoughts crowded tumultuously through my brain, I saw McQuade
examining the heavy mass of ivy which grew at the corner of the porch
with a puzzled expression. Following his glance, I realized that the
theory had at least a temporary setback. The vine was not broken or torn
in any way as would inevitably have been the case had anyone used it as
a means of descent from the roof. But I myself observed, though I felt
sure that McQuade did not, a lightning rod which extended from the roof
of the wing, down to the porch roof, across it, and thence to the ground
about midway along the west side of the porch, and, had anyone descended
in this way, he would have walked along the border between the side of
the porch and the path until he arrived at the corner. Here, however, he
would have been obliged to step off the border and on to the gravel,
owing to the heavy vine, mentioned above, growing at this point. His
footsteps upon the grass would of course have left no mark. I did not
call McQuade's attention to this at the time, but waited for his next
move. It did not surprise me. He strode along the path at the front of
the house to the steps leading to the large porch and porte-cochere at
the front of the main building, tracing the muddy footprints up to the
porch and upon its floor until they were no longer perceptible. He then
entered the house and at once made for the upper hall in the west wing,
I following him closely. His first move, as I expected, was to examine
and open the window at the end of the hall, which, I was not surprised
to find, was unfastened. His second was to step out upon the roof. No
sooner had I joined him here than he crossed to the window of the green
room and peered in. The interior of the room was clearly visible, but
the window was tightly bolted within, a