have the button that sounds it attached to a gate
opening upon the road," said Pendleton.

They stood for a short time in silence; then Pendleton nudged his
friend with an elbow.

"Look," he whispered. "There at the door of the shed."

Ashton-Kirk did so. And he was just in time to see a large, iron-gray
head, a craggy, powerful face, and a pair of thick shoulders; the
expression and attitude were those of a man listening intently. Almost
instantly, as Ashton-Kirk's gaze fell upon him, the man withdrew.

"Humph," exclaimed Pendleton under his breath. "Who's that, I wonder?"

They waited for some time longer in silence. But the little man did
not return, nor did the head appear again at the shop door.
Ashton-Kirk appeared puzzled.

"Locke intended returning at once," he said to Pendleton. "Otherwise
he would have closed his work-shop door." Then his eyes wandered
toward the house, and his grip closed tightly upon his companion's
arm. "Look," whispered he, in his turn.

Pendleton's gaze flew toward the house. The lower windows had been
dimly lighted when they approached; but now the glow from them was
high and brilliant. In one of the rooms they saw Locke; he was
striding up and down, his hands clinched and gesturing, his face
upturned, writhing hideously. Seated at a table, calmly engaged in
examining something traced upon a sheet of paper, and apparently not
paying the slightest attention to the gesticulating man, was a young
woman. And Pendleton felt himself grow suddenly faint and sick as he
recognized Edyth Vale.

CHAPTER XV

MISS VALE DEPARTS SUDDENLY

For a moment there was a silence between the two men; then Ashton-Kirk
said, dryly:

"Miss Vale has, apparently, not been altogether frank with us in this
matter."

"You think then--" began Pendleton in a voice of terror. But
Ashton-Kirk stopped him.

"I think many things," said he. "But they are neither here nor there.
Facts are what count. Put the circumstances together for yourself and
see where they lead you. Miss Vale has been from the first mixed up
more or less in this crime. She explained. As far as I knew the
explanation was made in good faith. Now we find her here in this
lonely place, quietly engaged with a man whom I have convinced myself
is one of Hume's murderers."

There was another pause; this time it was Pendleton who broke the
silence.

"As you say," spoke he, in a strange, throaty sort of tone, "she has
not been quite f