lender, it was
exceedingly strong, and of closely wrought fibre. "Is it a sort of
hurdle?"

"That's it, sir," assented the policeman. "It is a sort of hurdle--on
four legs. They lay the pig on it, don't you see, and tie it down with a
cord of this sort--this cord's been used for that--it's greasy with long
use."

"And it has been cut off a longer piece, of course," said the doctor.
"These cords are of considerable length, aren't they?"

"Good length, sir--there's a regular coil, like," said the man. He, too,
bent down and looked at the length before him. "This has been cut off
what you might call recent," he went on, pointing to one end.

"And cut off with a sharp knife, too."

The police sergeant glanced at the doctor as if asking advice on the
subject of putting his thoughts into words.

"Well?" said the doctor, with a nod of assent. "Of course, you've got
something in your mind, sergeant?"

"Well, there is a man who kills pigs, and has such cords as that, lives
close by, doctor," he answered. "You know who I mean--the man they call
Gentleman Jack."

"You mean Harborough," said the doctor. "Well--you'd better ask him if
he knows anything. Somebody might have stolen one of his cords. But
there are other pig-killers in the town, of course."

"Not on this side the town, there aren't," remarked another policeman.

"What is plain," continued the doctor, looking at Cotherstone and the
others, "is that Kitely was strangled by this rope, and that everything
on him of any value was taken. You'd better find out what he had, or was
likely to have, on him, sergeant. Ask the housekeeper."

Miss Pett came from the inner room, where she had already begun her
preparations for laying out the body. She was as calm as when Bent first
told her of what had occurred, and she stood at the end of the table,
the cord between her and her questioners, and showed no emotion, no
surprise at what had occurred.

"Can you tell aught about this, ma'am?" asked the sergeant. "You see
your master's met his death at somebody's hands, and there's no doubt
he's been robbed, too. Do you happen to know what he had on him?"

The housekeeper, who had her arms full of linen, set her burden down on
a clothes-horse in front of the fire before she replied. She seemed to
be thinking deeply, and when she turned round again, it was to shake her
queerly ornamented head.

"Well, I couldn't say exactly," she answered. "But I shouldn't wonder if
it was