iration. He
certainly saw it in the faces of the two open-eyed policemen, but
Cromarty's was hard and set, and he seemed still to be waiting.

"You haven't told us about Sir Reginald yet," he said.

Rattar looked at him defiantly.

"No evidence there," he said with a cunning shake of his head, "you can
go on guessing!"

"Would you like to smoke a pipe?" asked Carrington suddenly.

The man's eyes gleamed.

"By God, yes!"

"You can have one if you tell us about Sir Reginald. We've got you
anyhow, and there will be evidence enough there too when we've put it
together."

The superintendent looked a trifle shocked, but Carrington's sway over
him was by this time evidently unbounded. He coughed an official protest
but said nothing.

The prisoner only hesitated for a moment. He saw Carrington taking out a
cigarette, and then he took out his keys and said:

"This is the key for that drawer. You'll find my pipe and baccy there.
I'll tell you the rest." And then he started and exclaimed: "But how the
h-- did you know I smoked?"

"At five minutes past nine o'clock last night," said Carrington, as he
handed him his pipe, "I was within three paces of you."

The prisoner stared at him with a wry face.

"You devil!" he murmured, and then added with some philosophy: "After
all, I'd sooner be hanged than stop smoking." And with that he lit his
pipe.

"You want to know about old Cromarty," he resumed. "Well, I made my
first bad break when I carried on a correspondence with him which Simon
had begun, not knowing they had had a talk between whiles cancelling the
whole thing. You know about it and about the letter Sir Reginald sent me
after I'd written. Well, when I got that letter I admit it rattled me a
bit. I've often wondered since whether he had really suspected anything
or whether he would have sooner or later. Anyhow I got it into my head
that the game was up if something didn't happen. And so it happened."

"You went and killed him?" said Ned.

"That's for you and your glass eye to find out!" snapped the prisoner.

"Take his pipe away," said Carrington quietly.

"Damn it!" cried Rattar, "I'll tell you, only I'm fed up with that man's
bullying! I put it in a stocking" (he nodded towards the match box)
"just as you guessed and I went out to Keldale that night. My God, what
a walk that was in the dark! I'd half forgotten the way down to the
house and I thought every other tree was a man watching me. I don't know