Raymond Case, started off to interview Doctor
Bird, one of the two persons Margaret Langmore had seen go past the
mansion about the time the tragedy was occurring.

He found the doctor an individual with an exaggerated idea of his own
importance. It was hard to bind him down to tell what he actually knew
and it took the detective the best part of an hour to learn that the
physician knew nothing of real importance.

A short while later Adam Adams learned that the farmer who had been
seen going past the mansion was named Cephas Carboy. He was a strange
individual, of no education, who lived on a hillside road, running some
distance to the rear of the Langmore house. When the detective arrived
there he found Carboy sitting under a tree smoking a short clay pipe.
The farm was a neglected one, the house about ready to tumble down, and
in the dooryard were half a dozen dirty and ragged children, who
scampered out of sight on the approach of a stranger.

"Good morning," said Adam Adams cheerfully. He saw at a glance that
the fellow before him was a thoroughly shiftless character.

"Mornin' to you," was the short response.

"This is Mr. Cephas Carboy?"

"Cephas Carboy's my name--ain't much of a mister to it," and the man
grinned feebly.

"You're the man I want to see, Carboy," and the detective took a seat
on a log close by.

"Want to see me? What fer? I don't know you."

"I want to see you about that Langmore murder."

The shiftless man stared and withdrew his pipe from his mouth with
trembling fingers.

"I didn't have nuthin' to do with that. They can't pitch it onto me
nohow! I came past the house, that's all I did. I didn't go inside
the gate, I didn't. It was Miss Langmore did that murder--or else Mary
Billings."

"Did you see anybody round the place when you went past?"

"Not a soul."

"What were you doing around there?"

"Are you an--an officer?"

"Perhaps I am. Anyway, you had best answer my questions."

"I went down to Hopgood's place, to sell some fish I had caught--Mr.
Hopgood can prove it. Then I came straight home."

"Which way did you go to get to Hopgood's?"

"Took the road yonder, around the hill, and crossed the brook at
Peabody's bridge--Peabody can prove that, too. He was out in the
hayfield and saw me."

Adam Adams took a look at the road mentioned. At a turn there was a
cleared spot through the woods and a fair sight could be caught of the
rear of the Langmore mansi