rd, he momentarily expected to see the window of
the alcove thrown up and to hear Mr. Cumberland's voice raised in loud
command for him to quit the premises. But no such interruption came. The
lonely watcher, whose solitary figure he could just discern above the
unshaded sill, remained immovable, with his head buried in his arms, but
whether in sleep or in brooding misery, there was naught to tell.

The rest of the house presented an equally dolorous and forsaken
appearance. There were lights in the kitchen and lights in the servants'
rooms at the top of the house, but no sounds either of talking or
laughing. All voices had sunk to a whisper, and if by chance a figure
passed one of the windows, it was in a hurried, frightened way, which
Sweetwater felt very ready to appreciate.

In the stable it was no better. Zadok had bought an evening paper, and
was seeking solace from its columns. Sweetwater had attempted the
sociable but had been met by a decided rebuff. The coachman could not
forget his attitude before the funeral and nothing, not even the pitcher
of beer the detective proposed to bring in, softened the forbidding air
with which this old servant met the other's advances.

Soon Sweetwater realised that his work was over for the night and
planned to leave. But there was one point to be settled first. Was there
any other means of exit from these grounds save that offered by the
ordinary driveway?

He had an impression that in one of his strolls about, he had detected
the outlines of a door in what looked like a high brick wall in the
extreme rear. If so, it were well worth his while to know where that door
led. Working his way along in the shadow cast by the house and afterward
by the stable itself, he came upon what was certainly a wall and a wall
with a door in it. He could see the latter plainly from where he halted
in the thick of the shadows. The moonlight shone broadly on it, and he
could detect the very shape and size of its lock. It might be as well to
try that lock, but he would have to cross a very wide strip of moonlight
in order to do so, and he feared to attract attention to his extreme
inquisitiveness. Yet who was there to notice him at this hour? Mr.
Cumberland had not moved, the girls were upstairs, Zadok was busy with
his paper, and the footman dozing over his pipe in his room over the
stable. Sweetwater had just come from that room, and he knew.

A quiet stable-yard and a closed door only ten fe