n grimly. "Meanwhile we have
sufficient evidence to show that Sir Marcus drove from the New Avenue
Theater to this house."

"He may not have driven here at all," I interrupted; "he may have
driven somewhere else and performed the latter part of his journey
here--"

"In the crate!" cried Gatton. "Yes, you are right; his body may
actually have been inside the crate at the time that you and Bolton
arrived here last night; for that would be fully an hour after Sir
Marcus left the stage-door."

"But who can have rung up the police station last night?" I cried,
"and what can have been the object of this unknown person?"

"That we have to find out," said Gatton quietly; "undoubtedly it
formed part of a scheme planned with extraordinary cunning; it was not
an accident or an oversight, I mean. The men who are assisting me
haven't been idle, for we have already learned some most amazing facts
about the case. I haven't yet visited the house myself, but I have
here the report of one of my assistants who has done so; also I have
the keys. The garage I will inspect more carefully later on."

He glanced quickly about the place before we left it, then, leaving
the door locked behind us, we walked along to the gate before which
the constable stood on duty, and from thence proceeded up the drive to
the front entrance. There was a deep porch supported by pillars and
densely overgrown with creeper. I noted, too, a heavy and unhealthy
odor as of decaying leaves, and observed that a perfect carpet of
these lay on the path. In the shade of the big trees it was
comparatively cool, but the heavy malarious smell did not please me
and I imagined that it must have repelled more than one would-be
lessee.

As we approached the porch I saw that the windows of the rooms
immediately left and right of it had been stripped of the agent's
bills, for I could see where fragments of paper still adhered to the
glass. There were no bills in the porch either; but when Gatton opened
the front door I uttered an exclamation of surprise.

We stood in a small lounge-hall. There was a staircase on the left and
three doors opened on to the hall. But although the Red House was
palpably unoccupied, the hall was furnished! There were some rugs upon
the polished floor, a heavy bronze club-fender in front of the grate,
several chairs against the walls and a large palm in a Chinese pot.

"Why," I exclaimed, "the place is furnished and the stairs are
carpeted too!