eft the room.

Gifford spoke. "The girl saw nothing of the escaping person after he
reached the ground?"

"Nothing, she says," Major Freeman answered. "But the base of the tower
was in deep shadow, which would prevent that."

"A pity her curiosity was not a little more practical," Henshaw observed.

"Yes." Gifford turned to him. "You are proved correct, Mr. Henshaw, in
your repudiation of the suicide idea. Perhaps, in view of this latest
development, you may have knowledge to go upon of some one from whom your
brother might have apprehended danger?"

Henshaw's set face gave indication of nothing but a studied reserve. "No
one certainly," he answered coolly, "from whom he might apprehend danger
to his life."

"There must have been a motive for the act," Kelson observed. "Unless it
was a sudden quarrel."

"There appears," Major Freeman put in, "to be no evidence whatever of
anything leading up to that."

"No; the cause is so far quite mysterious," Henshaw said.

It seemed to Gifford that there was something of undisclosed knowledge
behind his words, and he fell to wondering how far the motive was
mysterious to him.

Morriston proceeded to acquaint Major Freeman with the discovered cause
of the marks on the ladies' dresses, and they all went off to the lower
room where the position of the stains was pointed out. Edith Morriston
was no longer there.

"Miss Tredworth sat at this end of the sofa," Morriston explained, "and
so the marks on her dress are clearly accounted for."

"And Miss Morriston?" Henshaw put the question in a tone which had in it,
Gifford thought, a touch of scepticism.

"Oh, my sister must have been in here too," Morriston replied. "Or how
could her dress have been stained? Unless, indeed, she brushed against
Miss Tredworth's or someone else's. That's clear."

There seemed no alacrity in Henshaw to accept the conclusion and he did
not respond.

"I am glad this part of the mystery is so satisfactorily settled,"
the chief constable remarked. "Now we have the issue narrowed.
Well, Sprules?"

The detective had appeared at the door.

"I have examined the ironwork of the window, sir," he said, "and have
found under the magnifying-glass traces of the fraying of a rope as
though caused by friction against the iron staple."

"Sufficient signs to bear out the young woman's statement?"

"Quite, sir. There is upon close examination distinct evidence of a rope
having been worked against the hin