ence. "What's your opinion now?"

"I've none," he answered, gloomily. "What's yours?"

"Mine is that the mystery increases hourly."

"What did you find at the cutting-up?"

In a few words I explained the unaccountable nature of the wound,
drawing for him a rough diagram on the back of an old envelope, which
I tossed over to where he sat.

He looked at it for a long time without speaking, then observed:

"H'm! Just as I thought. The police theory regarding that fellow Short
and the knife is all a confounded myth. Depend upon it, Boyd, old
chap, that gentleman is no fool. He's tricked Thorpe finely--and with
a motive, too."

"What motive do you suspect?" I inquired, eagerly, for this was an
entirely fresh theory.

"One that you'd call absurd if I were to tell it to you now. I'll
explain later on, when my suspicions are confirmed--as I feel sure
they will be before long."

"You're mysterious, Ambler," I said, surprised. "Why?"

"I have a reason, my dear chap," was all the reply he vouchsafed. Then
he puffed again vigorously at his pipe, and filled the room with
clouds of choking smoke of a not particularly good brand of tobacco.

CHAPTER X.

WHICH PUZZLES THE DOCTORS.

At the inquest held in the big upstair room of the Star and Garter
Hotel at Kew Bridge there was a crowded attendance. By this time the
public excitement had risen to fever-heat. It had by some
unaccountable means leaked out that at the post-mortem we had been
puzzled; therefore the mystery was much increased, and the papers that
morning without exception gave prominence to the startling affair.

The coroner, seated at the table at the head of the room, took the
usual formal evidence of identification, writing down the depositions
upon separate sheets of blue foolscap.

Samuel Short was the first witness of importance, and those in the
room listened breathlessly to the story of how his alarum clock had
awakened him at two o'clock; how he had risen as usual and gone to his
master's room, only to discover him dead.

"You noticed no sign of a struggle?" inquired the coroner, looking
sharply up at the witness.

"None, sir. My master was lying on his side, and except for the stain
of blood which attracted my attention it looked as though he had died
in his sleep."

"And what did you do?"

"I raised the alarm," answered Short; and then he went on to describe
how he switched on the electric light, rushed downstairs, seized the
knif