e
curtain still shaking. Then she fainted.

"Now, what are the clues to the murderer? A string tied with a
peculiar knot, the blood-stained handkerchief, and the finger-prints
on the dead man's robe."

Godfrey paused for a moment. Freed of its inessentials, in this way,
the case was beautifully clear--and beautifully baffling. It was a
paved way, smooth and wide and without obstruction of any kind; but it
ended in a cul-de-sac!

"One thing is certain," Godfrey went on, at last; "the murder was
committed by somebody--either by Swain, or by one of the Hindus, or by
some unknown. Let us weigh the evidence for and against each of them.

"Against Swain it may be urged that he was on the ground, that he had
time to do it, and some provocation, though the provocation, as we
know it, seems to be inadequate, provided Swain was in his right mind;
a handkerchief which was tied about his wrist is found beside the
body, and his finger-prints are found upon it. Miss Vaughan believed
he was following them; he admits that he thought of doing so.

"In his favour, it may be urged that a man like Swain doesn't commit
murder--though, as a matter of fact, this is a dangerous
generalisation, for all sorts of men commit murder; but if he should
do so, it would be only under great provocation and in the heat of
anger, certainly not in cold blood with a noose; and, finally, if the
motion of the curtain Miss Vaughan noticed was made by the murderer,
it couldn't possibly have been Swain, because he was with us at that
moment. You will see that there is a mass of evidence against him, and
practically the whole defence is that such a crime would be impossible
to one of his temperament. You know yourself how flimsy such a defence
is.

"Against the Hindus, on the other hand, practically the only basis for
suspicion is that such a crime might be temperamentally possible to
them. They may have been on the ground, and the method of the murder
savours strongly of Thuggee--though don't forget that Swain admitted
he could have tied that knot. Besides, if it was the Thug who followed
them, he wouldn't have made any noise, and most certainly he couldn't
have left the prints of Swain's fingers on the body. But if Swain is
right in his assertion that he saw the snake in the arbour, it is
probable that the Thug wasn't far away.

"Against an unknown it may be urged that neither Swain nor the Hindus
could have committed the crime; but I don't see how an