eason for
this is that it is not under their control--another that they cannot
carry their light about with them."

He pointed to the lowermost step of the flight; there, as before, were
the stump of candle, the burnt matches, the traces of tallow upon the
wood.

"There were two or more men concerned in this crime," proceeded
Ashton-Kirk, "and that is the method of lighting that they chose--a
candle."

"Two men! How do you know that?" asked Pendleton.

"You shall see in a moment," replied the investigator. Then he
continued: "And the candle was used not only for illumination--it
served another purpose, and so supplied me with the first definite
information that my searching had given me up to that time."

Pendleton looked at the discouraged little candle end, with its long
black wick, the two charred splinters of pine wood and the eccentric
trail of tallow droppings. Then he shook his head.

"How you could get enlightenment from those things is beyond me," he
said. "But tell me what they indicated."

"The candle and the match-sticks count for little," said Ashton-Kirk.
"It is the tracings of melted tallow that possess the secret. Look
closely at them. At first glance they may seem the random drippings of
a carelessly held light. But a little study will show you a clearly
defined system contained in them."

"Well, you might say there were three lines of it," said Pendleton,
after a moment's inspection.

"Right," said Ashton-Kirk. "Three lines there are, and each follows a
row of tack heads. These latter were, apparently, once driven in to
hold down a step-protector of some sort which has since become worn
out and been removed."

The speaker took a pad of paper and a pencil from his pocket. Across
the pad he drew three lines one under the other. Then with another
glance at the candle droppings upon the step, he made a copy of them
that looked like this:

[Illustration: sketch of clue]

Pendleton bent over the result under the flare of the gas light; and
as he looked his eyes widened.

"Why," cried he, "they look like a stenographer's word-signs."

"Good!" said Ashton-Kirk. "And that, my dear fellow, is exactly what
they are. There, scrawled erratically in dripping tallow, is a three
word sentence in Benn Pitman's phonetic characters. It is roughly
done, and may have occupied some minutes; but it is well done, and in
excellent German. I'll write it out for you."

Then he wrote on the pad in big, plain