was in those papers a full report of the first
proceedings before the magistrates, and Wraythwaite was much struck by
your examination of the woman Miss Pett. In fact, he was so much struck
by your questions and her replies that he brought the papers to me, and
we read them together. And, although we knew well enough that we should
eventually have no difficulty whatever in proving an _alibi_ in
Harborough's behalf, we decided that in his interest we would make a few
guarded but strict inquiries into Miss Pett's antecedents."

Brereton started. Miss Pett! Ah!--he had had ideas respecting Miss Pett
at the beginning of things, but other matters had cropped up, and
affairs had moved and developed so rapidly that he had almost forgotten
her.

"That makes you think," continued Carfax, with a smile. "Just so!--and
what took place at that magistrates' sitting made Wraythwaite and myself
think. And, as I say, we employed Stobb and Leykin, men of great
experience, to--just find out a little about Miss Pett. Of course, Miss
Pett herself had given us something to go on. She had told you some
particulars of her career. She had been housekeeper to a Major Stilman,
at Kandahar Cottage, Woking. She had occupied posts at two London
hotels. So--Stobb went to Woking, and Leykin devoted himself to the
London part of the business.

"And I think, Stobb," concluded the solicitor, turning to one of the
inquiry agents, "I think you'd better tell Mr. Brereton what you found
out at Woking, and then Leykin can tell us what he brought to light
elsewhere."

Stobb, a big, cheery-faced man, who looked like a highly respectable
publican, turned to Brereton with a smile.

"It was a very easy job, sir," he said. "I found out all about the lady
and her connexion with Woking in a very few hours. There are plenty of
folk at Woking who remember Miss Pett--she gave you the mere facts of
her residence there correctly enough. But--naturally--she didn't tell
you more than the mere facts, the surface, as it were. Now, I got at
everything. Miss Pett was housekeeper at Woking to a Major Stilman, a
retired officer of an infantry regiment. All the time she was with
him--some considerable period--he was more or less of an invalid, and he
was well known to suffer terribly from some form of neuralgia. He got
drugs to alleviate the pain of that neuralgia from every chemist in the
place, one time or another. And one day, Major Stilman was found dead in
bed, with so