hink you
were connected with the Langmore murders."

At this Matlock Styles started, but quickly recovered.

"What made you think that?"

"Certain things I discovered around the mansion."

"Bah! That shows how you detectives often miss it. I was not near the
Langmore house when the murders were committed."

"You can prove that?" questioned Adam Adams curiously.

"Of course I can. I was over to Stony Hill with my team, doing some
trading. I stopped at the tavern and at the hardware store, and had
quite a chat with several people there. I left home at eight o'clock
in the morning and didn't get back until one o'clock in the afternoon.
If you had taken the trouble you could easily have found out that what
I have told you is the truth."

"You can prove that you were at Stony Hill from ten to twelve that
morning?"

"I can easily do it. You can ask Doc Mason, at the hardware shop, Sam
Ross at the tavern, and Dick Stout at the stables, besides a dozen
others. Why, I was even talking to Mr. Anderson, the minister. He is
thinking of buying a horse from me."

"That detective ain't going to prove anything," broke in one of the men.

"That's right," came from another. "He has got to take his medicine as
a spy."

"Of course," said Matlock Styles. "I only wanted to satisfy his
curiosity. Maybe he'll die feeling easier now."

His cold-blooded way of speaking made a chill run down Adam Adams'
backbone. He was beginning to see the Englishman in a new light. The
man was a master of deception, not as clumsy in thought and action as
he assumed to be. And he was as heartless as a stone.

"Would you murder me?" asked the detective.

"It is the rule of our order that no man who acts the spy on us shall
get away to tell of what he has discovered. How did you get away after
I put you in that other room in the dark?"

"It was an easy trick."

"Won't you explain?"

"I might, but it would hinder my getting away in the present instance."

"You'll not get away again, never fear."

"Perhaps he didn't come alone!" exclaimed one of the other men. "He
may have others with him, and they may have helped him to escape in the
first place."

"He was alone when he came to the farm," answered the Englishman. And
then he added:

"Bind him, and Number Three and Number Four shall remain on guard to
watch him."

"Where shall we take him?" questioned Number Four.

"Take him to the last chamber. But blindfold him firs