But of course folks just say they are feared to now."

"Has anybody asked either of them if they are--or ever were--engaged?"

"No, sir. But if they denied it now, folks would just say the same
thing."

"Yes. I see--naturally. Lady Cromarty believes it and is keeping Miss
Farmond under her eye, the gossips tell me. Is that so?"

"Oh, that's true right enough, sir."

"Who told Lady Cromarty?"

"That I do not know, sir."

Again the visitor seemed to be thinking, and again to cast his thoughts
aside and take up a new aspect of the case.

"Supposing," he suggested, "we were to draw the curtains and light these
candles for a few minutes? It might help us to realise the whole
thing."

This suggestion pleased Mr. Bisset greatly and in a minute or two the
candles were lit and the curtains drawn.

"Put the table where it stood," said Carrington. "Now which was Sir
Reginald's chair? This?"

He sat in it and looked slowly round the darkened, candle-lit library.

"Now," said he, "suppose I was Sir Reginald, and there came a tap at
that window, what would I do?"

"If you were the master, sir, you'd go straight to the windie to see who
it was."

"I wouldn't get in a funk and ring the bell?"

"No fears!" said Bisset confidently.

"And any one who knew Sir Reginald at all well could count on his not
giving the alarm then if they tapped at the window?"

"They could that."

Carrington looked attentively towards the window.

"Those curtains hang close against the window, I see," he observed. "A
very slight gap in them would enable any one to get a good view of the
room, if the blinds were not down. Were the blinds down that night?"

Bisset slapped his knee.

"The middle blind wasn't working!" he cried. "What a fool I've been not
to think on the extraordinar' significance of that fac'! My, the
deductions to be drawn! You've made it quite clear now, sir. The man
tappit at that windie----"

"Steady, steady!" said Carrington, smiling and yet seriously. "Don't you
go announcing that theory! If there's anything in it--mum's the word!
But mind you, Bisset, it's only a bare possibility. There's no good
evidence against the door theory yet."

"Not the table being cowpit and the body moved?"

"They might be explained."

He was thoughtful for a moment and then said deliberately:

"I want--I mean you want certain evidence to exclude the door theory.
Without that, the window theory remains a guess. Sir Malcolm is in