the innkeeper start
with surprise at the sight of the two inmates of the room. Mr. Cromering
was seated at the table, but Superintendent Galloway was standing up
with his back to the fireplace. There was a moment's tense silence
before the latter spoke.

"We have sent for you to ask you a few questions, Benson."

"I was under the impression--that is, I was led to believe--that it was
Mr. Colwyn who wanted to see me."

"Never mind what you thought," retorted Galloway impatiently. "You know
perfectly well what has brought us here. I'm going to ask you some
questions about the murder which was committed in this inn less than
three weeks ago."

"I know nothing about it, sir, beyond what I told you before."

"You will be well advised, in your own interests, not to lie, Benson.
Why did you not tell us you had a second key to Mr. Glenthorpe's room?"

There was a perceptible pause before the reply came.

"I didn't think it mattered, sir."

"Then you admit you have a second key?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well." Superintendent Galloway took out a pocket-book and made a
note of the reply. "Now, where did you conceal the money?"

"What money, sir?"

"Don't equivocate, man!" Superintendent Galloway produced the
pocket-book Colwyn had recovered from the pit, and held it at arm's
length in front of the innkeeper. "I mean the L300 in Treasury notes in
this pocket-book, which Mr. Glenthorpe drew from the bank, and which you
took from his room the night he was murdered."

"I know nothing about it."

To Colwyn at least it seemed that the expression on the innkeeper's face
as he glanced at the pocket-book might have been mistaken by an
unprejudiced observer for genuine surprise.

"I suppose you never saw it before, eh?" sneered Galloway.

"I never did."

"Nor hid it in the pit?"

"No, sir."

Galloway paused in his questioning in secret perplexity. Benson's
answers to his last three questions were given so firmly and
unhesitatingly that some of his former doubts of Colwyn's theory
returned to him with redoubled force. But it was in his most truculent
and overbearing manner that he next remarked:

"Do you also deny that you carried Mr. Glenthorpe's body from his room
and threw it down the pit?"

The spasm of sudden terror which contorted the innkeeper's face was a
revelation to the three men who were watching him closely.

"I don't know anything about it," he quavered weakly.

"That won't go down, Benson!" Galloway