as toward the
house. Mr. McQuade does not believe that you left the house in the same
way that you returned to it."

"What on earth does he believe then?" she inquired with a slight laugh,
which was the first sign of brightness I had seen in her since she left
me with a smile the night before. I could not help admiring her
beautiful mouth and her white, even teeth as she turned inquiringly to
me. Yet my answer was such as to drive that smile from her face for a
long time to come.

"He believes this, Miss Temple, or at least he thinks of it as a
possibility: Whoever committed the murder reached the porch roof by
means of the window at the end of the upper hall, and, after entering
and leaving Mr. Ashton's room, descended in some way from the porch to
the pathway, and re-entered the house by the main entrance. Your
footsteps are the only ones so far that fit in with this theory."

"It is absurd!" said my companion, with a look of terror. "How could
the window have been rebolted? Why should the murderer not have
re-entered the house in the same way he left it? How does he know that
there was anyone upon the roof at all?"

"In answer to the first objection, he claims that someone interested in
the murderer's welfare might have rebolted the window upon entering the
room. That would of course mean either your father or myself. To the
second, that whoever committed the crime feared to enter the hall by the
window after the house had been aroused. To the third, there is positive
evidence of the presence of someone having been upon the roof, at Mr.
Ashton's window."

"What evidence?" She seemed greatly alarmed; her clenched hands and
rapid breathing indicated some intense inward emotion.

"The faint print of a hand--in blood, upon the window sill. With these
things to face, Miss Temple, you will, I'm sure, see the advisability
of explaining fully your departure from the house, and your return, in
order that the investigations of the police may be turned in other
directions, where the guilt lies, instead of in yours, where, I am sure,
it does not." I fully expected, after telling her this, that she would
insist upon returning to the house at once and clearing herself fully,
but what was my amazement as I observed her pallor, her agitation, the
nervous clenching of her hands, increase momentarily as I laid the
Sergeant's theory before her! She seemed suddenly stricken with terror.
"I can say nothing, nothing whatever," she