wonder if there mightn't be something in the
house--letters, perhaps, in that bedroom I've never had a chance to
explore--something he would like to have destroyed."

"Trust your instinct, Jim."

He arose smiling.

"That's what I've arranged to do."

"Then you're going out there to-night?"

"Yes."

He hesitated, but the temptation was too strong.

"How would you like a taxi-ride to Elmford?"

"Jim, you talk like a millionaire."

"If anything comes of it," he said, "the city will pay. If nothing does
I'll look an awful fool, so I'd rather you didn't ask any questions now.
But if you want to come--I know you're game."

She laughed and got her hat and coat.

So they drove to the lonely patch of woods near the Elmford gate where
Garth instructed the driver to wait for them. He led Nora, warning her
not to speak, through the obscurity to the entrance. There he paused,
and, after a moment, whistled on a low, prolonged note.

Almost immediately the sound of voices came to them and the scraping of
feet in the gravel. Two blacker patches scarcely outlined themselves
against the black shrubbery.

"Jones!" Garth called softly.

The men approached.

"All right," Garth said. "Go along home. When did they take Mrs. Randall
away?"

"Over an hour ago. Thought you were never coming. Spooky hole!"

"No alarms?" Garth asked.

"No," Jones replied, "but I can hear that woman yelling yet."

Garth laughed, uneasily.

"Well, good-night. There's no secret about your leaving, but don't
mention at the station that I'm here."

The men merged into the darkness by the gate.

Garth took Nora's arm, and, circling the house at a distance, reached
the stone building by the stream. He entered, sniffing suspiciously.
When he had closed the door he took his flashlight from his pocket and
pressed the control.

"Don't move around, Nora."

Quickly he examined the confusion of footprints. It impressed him at
once as significant that none strayed far from the threshold. The damp
floor farther in was disturbed only by a long, irregular depression
modelled, he knew, by a body, lying prone.

"Think of lying there, Nora," he said. "I'd have preferred standing
indefinitely. And why didn't he move around?"

Nora's teeth chattered.

"It's bitter cold in here."

Garth's face set.

"And a fastidious man like the doctor lies here all night and most of
the day. Then let's see."

He went outside and ran his light over the lines of