f the fluttered girls. "Come now, don't stand gaping at me like a
fool, but take us there directly."

The terrified girl went quickly ahead along a corridor leading from the
main hall. Turning down a narrower passage near the end she paused
outside a closed door and said:

"This is the housekeeper's room, sir."

"Stop a minute," said Merrington. "Does the housekeeper occupy only one
room?"

"No, sir, there are two. A sitting-room, with a bedroom opening off it."

"She has no other room in any other part of the house?"

"Oh, no, sir."

"That will do. You may go."

The maid needed no second bidding, but scuttled back towards the
corridor like a scared hen making for cover. Merrington flung open the
door in front of him and entered.

The room was well and simply furnished in the style of the house, but
the personal belongings and the bindings of some books suggested a mind
not out of harmony with the refinement of its surroundings. Merrington,
with a swift and comprehensive glance around him, began to upset the
neat arrangement and feminine order of the apartment with a thorough and
systematic search.

Caldew watched him for a moment, and then walked across to the door of
the inner room and entered it. The bedroom was large and airy, and the
appointments struck the note of dainty simplicity. Caldew was quick to
notice a girl's hat, with a veil attached, cast carelessly on the
toilet-table.

He made a circuit round the bed and approached the table to look at the
hat. A tight knot and a slight tear in the gossamer indicated that it
had been discarded very hastily, and Caldew wondered whether Hazel had
it on, waiting for an opportunity to slip away from the moat-house, when
he had knocked at the door to summon her to the library.

As he put the hat down his eye fell on a pincushion by the mirror, and
he gave a start of surprise. In the midst of hatpins at various angles
he saw the little brooch which had disappeared from the death-chamber.
The stone with the greenish reflection shone clearly against the blue
and gold shot-silk of the pincushion; the portion of the clasp which was
visible revealed the beginning of the scratched inscription of "Semper
Fidelis." The absence of any attempt to conceal the brooch was proof
that its owner was under the delusion that nobody had seen it lying in
the death-chamber. Caldew felt a thrill of professional vanity at the
success of his ruse.

His own name uttered in a peremp