unknown could
either, unless he happened to be one of the three or four people in
the world with finger-tips like Swain's. And that is too far-fetched
to be believable.

"But this I am sure of, Lester," and Godfrey leaned forward again:
"the murder was committed either by Swain or by someone anxious to
implicate Swain. We agree that it wasn't Swain. Very well, then: the
person who committed the murder made a noise in following Miss Vaughan
and her father so that she should think it was Swain who was following
them; he picked up the blood-stained handkerchief, which Swain had
dropped perhaps when he fled from the arbour, and placed it beside the
body; and in some way inconceivable to me he pressed the prints of
Swain's fingers on the dead man's robe. Now, to do that, he must have
known that Swain was injured--the blood-stained handkerchief would
tell him that; but he must also have known that it was his right hand
that was injured. There was no blood on Swain's left hand."

Again Godfrey paused. I was following his reasoning with such
absorbed attention that I could feel my brain crinkle with the effort.

"Now, listen," said Godfrey, and I could have smiled at the
uselessness of the admonition--as if I were not already listening with
all my faculties! "There is only one way in which the murderer could
have known that it was Swain's right hand, and that was by overhearing
the conversation in the arbour. But if he overheard that much, he
overheard it all, and he knew therefore what it was Swain proposed to
do. He knew that Vaughan's sanity was to be questioned; he knew that
he would probably be placed in a sanitarium; he knew that Miss Vaughan
would probably marry Swain. Presuming that it was Silva, he knew that,
unless something was done to stop it, a very few days would place both
Vaughan and his daughter beyond his reach."

"That is true," I admitted; "but Vaughan was beyond his reach a good
deal more certainly dead than he would have been in a sanitarium.
Besides, it isn't at all certain that he would have been sent to a
sanitarium."

"That's an objection, surely," Godfrey agreed; "but I must find out if
Vaughan is really beyond his reach dead."

I stared at him.

"You don't mean...."

"I don't know what I mean, Lester. I can feel a sort of dim meaning
at the back of my mind, but I can't get it out into the light."

"Besides," I went on, "if the yogi did it, how did he get back into
the house before we got