s
unexpected incident, until the kitchen clock chiming eleven warned him
to go to bed. He turned off the gas at the meter underneath the stairs
as Benson had requested. When he reached the room in which Mr.
Glenthorpe had been murdered, he paused outside the door, and turned the
handle. The door was locked.

As he was about to enter the adjoining bedroom which had been allotted
to him, a slender pencil of light pierced the darkness of the passage
leading off the one in which he stood. As he watched the gleam grew
brighter and broader; somebody was walking along the other passage. A
moment later the innkeeper's daughter came into view, carrying a candle.
She advanced quickly to where the detective was standing.

"I heard you coming upstairs," she explained, in a whisper. "I have been
waiting and listening at my door. I wanted to see you, but it is
difficult for me to do so without the others knowing. So I thought I
would wait. I wanted to let you know that if you wish to see me at any
time--if you need me to do anything--perhaps you would put a note under
my door, and I could meet you down by the breakwater at any time you
appoint. Nobody would see us there."

Colwyn nodded approvingly. Decidedly this girl was not lacking in
resource and intelligence.

"I am so glad you are here," she went on earnestly. "I was afraid, after
I left you to-day, that you might change your mind. I waited at one of
the upstairs windows all the afternoon till I saw you coming. You will
save him, won't you?"

She looked up at him with a faint smile, which, slight as it was, gave
her face a new rare beauty.

"I will try," responded Colwyn, gravely. "Can you tell where the key of
Mr. Glenthorpe's room is kept?"

"It hangs in the kitchen. Do you want it? I will get it for you. If Ann
or Charles see me, they, will not think it as strange as if they saw
you."

She was so eager to be of use to him that she did not wait for his
reply, but ran quickly and noiselessly along the passage, and down the
stairs. In a very brief space she returned with the key, which she
placed in his hand. "Is there anything else I can do?" she asked.

"Nothing, except to tell me where you got the key. I want to put it back
again without anybody knowing it has been used."

"It hangs on the kitchen dresser--the second hook. You cannot mistake
it, because there is a padlock key and one of my father's fishing lines
hanging on the same hook."

"Then that is all yo