d been hitherto a merely
instinctive conviction; since they had not left her body dead, they had
taken it away alive--and with no intent to kill elsewhere. For, if
murder were to be done, the dead was safest of all behind them in the
place of the theft.

Then again--while the distorted loop of the curtain haunted his
subconscious mind, so that with imaginary fingers he was adjusting its
curves, even while his mind pulled and twisted the elements of his
problem--then, again, he thought, this thief--had he shrunk from murder,
or merely from _this_ murder?

"If I could know that!"

And before he was well aware of what he did, he was in the opening of
the alcove, handling that awkward fold--and again he drew breath, deep
and slow through the nose; again the vague memory--again the elusive
association. Was the scent--sweet as well as musty--was it in the
curtain? But as he stooped, he saw what made him forget that vague
odour: a crumpled bunch of the soft linen had been squeezed together,
and was not yet recovered from the strain of some violent compression.
Gently stretching the stuff, and bringing it closer to the light, he
found the almost regular marks, above and below, as of some serrated,
semi-trenchant tool which had been closed upon the doubled piece of
cloth.

"Teeth, by God!" said Dick. "Tried to gag her with it--shoved a bag of
it in with his fingers, gets 'em out, and stoppers the lot with his
hand. Before she faints, she bites--here and there she's gone clean
through the stuff."

Indecision gone, he took the smaller lamp in his hand, and made a tour
of the room.

At an angle to the fireplace was a broad-seated, high-backed oaken
settee, covered with cushions. The back almost hid the hearth from the
french-window. The silk pillow nearest the alcove still kept the impress
of a head.

"When they came in," he reasoned, "the back of that thing hid her. She'd
lain down to rest, and stop that sobbing before she came back to me.
Fell asleep--women'll do that, happy or wretched, before they know where
they are. They reached the safe, and that arm at the end would hide even
her hair. While they're messing round with the safe, she wakes and peeps
at 'em--was it cold feet or sand kept her from yelling? What next?"

He was back at the alcove now, on hands and knees, the lamp set on the
ground, searching the thick pile of the carpet for signs of the struggle
there must have been. And again the smell--near the right