lead-pencil. He used this."

Malcolm Sage drew from his pocket the roll of twine with the thin
steel instrument down the centre. It was a canvas-needle, to the eye
of which the cord was attached.

"This was absolutely safe," he remarked. "Another thing I discovered
was that one lock, and only one lock in the house, had recently been
oiled--that of the library-door."

Sir James nodded his head several times. There was something of
self-reproach in the motion.

"Now," continued Malcolm Sage, "we come back to why a man should be
sitting at a table absorbed in gazing at nothing, and at a time when
most of the household are either in bed or preparing for bed."

"Peters said that he was checking his pass-book," suggested Sir
James.

"That is undoubtedly what he _was_ doing," continued Malcolm Sage,
"and Peters removed the passbook, put it in a drawer, first
destroying the cancelled cheques. He made a blunder in not replacing
the pass-book with something else. That was the last link in the
chain," he added.

"I don't quite see----" began Sir James.

"Perhaps you did not read of a case that was reported from New York
some eighteen months ago. It was very similar to that of Mr.
Challoner. A man was found shot through the head, the door being
locked on the inside, and a verdict of suicide was returned; but
there was absolutely no reason why he should have taken his life.

"What actually happened was that Mr. Challoner went to his bank to
draw five hundred pounds with which he hoped to bribe his nephew's
fiancee. He trusted to the temptation of the actual money rather
than a cheque. When he was at the bank the manager once more asked
him to return his pass-book, which had not been balanced for several
months. He was very dilatory in such matters."

"That is true," said Dane, speaking for the first time.

"That evening he proceeded to compare it with his cheque-book. I
suspect that Peters had been forging cheques and he saw here what
would lead to discovery. Furthermore, there was a considerable sum
of money in the safe, and the quarrel between uncle and nephew
to divert suspicion. This, however, was mere conjecture--that
trouser-pocket photo, Dawkins," said Malcolm Sage, turning to the
photographer, who handed it across to him.

"Now notice the position of those keys. They are put in head
foremost, and do not reach the bottom of the pocket. They had
obviously been taken away and replaced in the pocket as Challoner