Dear heaven! And you say that she accused him of the murder? Accused
him? How could she?"

"She was there--at Gleer Cottage--_last_ night. She went there to meet
him. But she was not, however, the first to direct my suspicions against
the General. That was done hours before and by a totally different
person."

"Whom?"

"His son," said Cleek, and forthwith told her of that memorable
interview with Harry Raynor after dinner, and of the typewritten letter
he had abstracted from the young wastrel's coat pocket. "Miss Lorne, I
waste no sympathy upon that worm," he went on. "From the top of his
empty head to the toe of his worthless foot there's not one ounce of
manhood in him. But he spoke the truth! His father did type that forged
letter and for the purpose he declared."

"To get him out of the neighbourhood for the night?"

"Yes. And but for the mere accident of the fellow's having discovered
that the typist girl was out of England, he would have succeeded
without having to resort to other means."

"How do you know that the General typed the letter?" asked Miss Lorne.

"I didn't in the beginning," returned Cleek. "I did know, however, that
it had been typed by somebody in this house; for I stole the letter,
then tricked Hamer into getting me an unused sheet of the typing paper
that was left over from the manuscript of the General's book. A glance
at the watermark showed them to be identical; in other words, that the
letter had been typed upon one of those left-over sheets. Well, that was
one thing; the other was that the General, having failed to get his son
out of the way for to-night by that means, took steps to accomplish it
by drugging him."

"Drugging him?"

"Yes. Earlier in the day Purviss had brought him a note from Lady
Clavering, and it was imperative that he should go out to-night to meet
her in secret. He didn't want his son prowling about, and he didn't want
me prowling about, either. Still less did he want you prowling about, or
that his wife should know of his leaving the house after she had gone to
bed. To make sure of having no such risk to run, he put a sleeping
draught into every drop of spirit or liqueur that was served in this
house to-night. What he had not reckoned upon, however, was the fact
that neither you nor I tasted either. But at this moment his son lies
drugged and unconscious in the dining-room, and it would be a safe
hazard to stake one's life that his wife is lying unconscious in