ck velvet toque with a band of white and black
silk flowers round it. In one part the white flowers were
besmeared with a dark brown stain.

Matthews stared at the little hat in his hand with puckered
brows. Then he called to Gordon.

"Do you know that hat?" he asked, holding it up for the man to
see.

Gordon shook his head.

"I might have seen it," he replied, "but I don't take much
account of such things, Mr. Matthews, being a married man..."

"Tut, tut," fussed Matthews, "I think you have seen it. Come,
think of the office for a minute!"

"Of the office?" repeated Gordon. Then he exclaimed suddenly:

"Miss Mackwayte!"

"Exactly," answered Matthews, "it's her hat, I recall it
perfectly. She wore it very often to the office. Look at the
blood on it!"

He put the hat down on the table and ran into the bar where
Nur-el-Din sat immobile on her chair, wrapped in a big overcoat
of some soft blanket cloth in dark green, her chin sunk on her
breast.

Matthews called up the Mill House and asked for Francis Okewood.
When he mentioned the finding of Barbara Mackwayte's hat, the
dancer raised her head and cast a frightened glance at Matthews.
But she said nothing and when Matthews turned from the telephone
to go back to the tap-room she had resumed her former listless
attitude.

Matthews and Gordon made a thorough search of the kitchen and
back premises without finding anything of note. They had just
finished when the sound of a car outside attracted their
attention. On the road beyond the little bridge outside the inn
Francis and Desmond Okewood were standing, helping a woman to
alight. Francis was still wearing his scarecrow-like apparel,
while Desmond, with his beard and pale face and bandaged head,
looked singularly unlike the trim Brigade Major who had come home
on leave only a week or so before.

Matthews went out to meet them and, addressing the woman--a
brisk-looking person--as Mrs. Butterworth, informed her that it
was shocking weather. Then he led the way into the inn.

The first thing that Desmond saw was the little toque with the
brown stain on its flowered band lying on the table. Francis
picked it up, turned it over and laid it down again.

"Where did you find it?" he asked Matthews. The latter informed
him of the circumstances of the discovery. Then Francis, sending
the searcher in to Nur-el-Din in the bar, pointed to the body on
the floor.

"Let's have a look at that!" he said.

Matthews