hin shadow as it occasionally
fell on the blinds, and you know I had already suggested that there was
something dubious about Janet because of her acquaintance with Charlie
Maxon.

"That light didn't go out until three in the morning. A few minutes
later I saw some one slip out the back door of the house and hurry
across the garden to the trail. Janet! It was brilliant moonlight,
you'll remember, and I recognized her at once.

"I followed her, keeping a cautious distance behind. Lost her once
when she vanished from the trail into the woods, but she came back a
minute or two later with a bundle under her arm that she had retrieved
from some hiding-place. After that she took a bypath leading downhill
in the direction of that poisonous little brook which runs through
those meadows after passing the tannery.

"I watched her as she knelt down on the bank of the stream, weighted
her bundle with a couple of rocks and hove it as far out as she could
into the water. She stood watching the bubbles break above the spot
where it disappeared, then turned and marched away erect as a grenadier
and calm as a cucumber.

"I let her go, of course. My interest was centered in that stuff she
had sunk, and I scurried around until I found a long pole. Then I
started dredging operations that would have been a credit to De Lesseps
himself--and brought ashore that bundle.

"You've guessed what it was. The monk's disguise, complete even to the
shoes!

"You were gone, or I'd have brought the reeking mess to you. I
couldn't smuggle it into Bolt's house without embarrassing
explanations--after a dip in that brook, those clothes advertised their
presence to a distance of a hundred yards. Finally, I threw them back
into the water, making careful note of the exact location, and went off
to where I had left Jason's car.

"I was pretty well pleased with myself as I drove home. It seemed to
me that I had solved the mystery of who killed Simon Varr, and it
didn't injure my self-esteem any to think I had nailed the crime on the
very person I had first suspected. Great work! I finally appeared
before Jean all covered with mud and medals.

"It was when we were talking it over that the same awful idea came to
us both. The more we thought it out, the less plausible seemed the
theory of Janet's guilt. A sharper wit than hers had planned the
murder. I told Jean about the long interview with Miss Ocky before
Janet went out to destroy th