m before this!"

"How?" demanded Meeking.

"Because, I take it, they bear a very sinister relation to the murder of
the late Mayor," replied the witness. "He was as well aware as I am that
things were all wrong."

"You know that?"

"I know that he did his best, from such material as he could get at, to
find out what the true state of things was. He worked hard at examining
such accounts as were available. To my knowledge he did his best to get
at the secret accounts kept by the Town Trustees. He failed
utterly--they defied him. Yet, just before his murder, he was getting
at facts in a fashion which was not only unpleasant but highly dangerous
to them, and they were aware of it."

"Can you give us an example of any of these facts--these discoveries?"

"Yes, I can give you one in particular. Wallingford was slowly but
surely getting at the knowledge of the system of secret payment which
has gone on in this place for a long time under the rule of the Town
Trustees. He had found out the truth, for instance, as regards Krevin
Crood. Krevin Crood was supposed to be paid a pension of L150 a year; in
reality he was paid L300 a year. Wallingford ascertained this beyond all
doubt, and that it had gone on ever since Krevin Crood's retirement from
his official position. There are other men in the borough, hangers-on
and supporters of the Town Trustees, who benefit by public money in the
shape of pensions, grants, doles--in every case the actual amount paid
is much more than the amount set down in such accounts as are shown.
Wallingford meant to sweep all this jobbery clean away!"

"How?"

"By getting the financial affairs of the town into the full and absolute
control of the Corporation. He wanted to abolish the Town Trustees as a
body. If he had succeeded in his aims, he would have done away with all
the abuses which they not only kept up but encouraged."

"Then, if Wallingford's reforms had been carried out, Krevin Crood would
have lost L150 a year?"

"He would have lost L300 a year. Wallingford's scheme included the utter
abolition of all these Town Trustee-created pensions and doles. Lock,
stock and barrel, they were all to go."

"And the Town Trustees--Crood, Mallett, Coppinger--were fully acquainted
with his intentions and those of his party?"

The witness shrugged his shoulders.

"That's well known!" he answered. "They were frightened of him and his
schemes to the last degree. They knew what it meant."

"Wh