with a look of
serene satisfaction, as a master contemplates his handiwork.

Trent turned to a fresh page of his notebook, and tapped it thoughtfully
with his pencil. Then he looked up and said, 'I suppose Mr. Manderson
had dressed for dinner that night?'

'Certainly, sir. He had on a suit with a dress-jacket, what he used to
refer to as a Tuxedo, which he usually wore when dining at home.'

'And he was dressed like that when you saw him last?'

'All but the jacket, sir. When he spent the evening in the library, as
usually happened, he would change it for an old shooting-jacket after
dinner, a light-coloured tweed, a little too loud in pattern for English
tastes, perhaps. He had it on when I saw him last. It used to hang in
this cupboard here'--Martin opened the door of it as he spoke--along
with Mr. Manderson's fishing-rods and such things, so that he could slip
it on after dinner without going upstairs.'

'Leaving the dinner-jacket in the cupboard?'

'Yes, sir. The housemaid used to take it upstairs in the morning.'

'In the morning,' Trent repeated slowly. 'And now that we are speaking
of the morning, will you tell me exactly what you know about that? I
understand that Mr. Manderson was not missed until the body was found
about ten o'clock.'

'That is so, sir. Mr. Manderson would never be called, or have anything
brought to him in the morning. He occupied a separate bedroom. Usually
he would get up about eight and go round to the bathroom, and he would
come down some time before nine. But often he would sleep till nine or
ten o'clock. Mrs. Manderson was always called at seven. The maid would
take in tea to her. Yesterday morning Mrs. Manderson took breakfast
about eight in her sitting-room as usual, and every one supposed that
Mr. Manderson was still in bed and asleep, when Evans came rushing up to
the house with the shocking intelligence.'

'I see,' said Trent. 'And now another thing. You say you slipped the
lock of the front door before going to bed. Was that all the locking-up
you did?'

'To the front door, sir, yes; I slipped the lock. No more is considered
necessary in these parts. But I had locked both the doors at the back,
and seen to the fastenings of all the windows on the ground floor. In
the morning everything was as I had left it.'

'As you had left it. Now here is another point--the last, I think. Were
the clothes in which the body was found the clothes that Mr. Manderson
would naturally h