“Tell me,” Gifford said quietly.

“You know,” Kelson proceeded, “they are going to this dance at Hasborough to-morrow.  Well, it appears that when her maid was overhauling her ball-dress, the same she wore here the other night, she found blood stains on it.”

“That,” Gifford remarked coolly, “may satisfactorily account for the marks on your cuff.”

Kelson stared in surprise at the other’s coolness.

“I dare say it does,” he exclaimed with a touch of impatience.  “I had hardly connected the two.  But what do you think of this?  How in the name of all that’s mysterious can it be accounted for?”

“Hardly by the idea that Miss Tredworth had anything to do with the late tragedy,” was the quiet answer.

“Good heavens, man, I should hope not,” Kelson cried vehemently.  “That is too monstrously absurd.”

“What is Miss Tredworth’s idea?”

“She has none.  She is completely mystified.  And inclined to be horribly frightened.”

“Naturally,” Gifford commented in the same even tone.

His manner seemed to irritate Kelson.  “I wish, my dear Hugh, I could take it half as coolly as you do,” he exclaimed resentfully.

“I don’t know what you want me to do or say, Harry,” Gifford expostulated.  “The whole affair is so utterly mysterious that I can’t pretend even to hazard an explanation.”

“In the meantime Muriel and I are in the most appalling position.  Why, man, she may at any moment be arrested on suspicion if this discovery leaks out, as it is sure to do.”

“You can’t try to hush it up; that would be a fatal mistake,” Gifford said thoughtfully, “and would immediately arouse suspicion.”

“Naturally I am not going to be such a fool as to advise that,” Kelson returned.  “The discovery will be the subject of the servants’ talk till it gets all over the place and into the papers.  No, what I have determined to do, unless you see any good reason for the contrary, is to go first thing in the morning to the police and tell them.  What do you say?” he added sharply, as Gifford was silent.

“I should not do anything in a hurry,” Gifford answered.

“But surely,” Kelson remonstrated, “the sooner we take the line of putting ourselves in the right the better.”

Again Gifford paused before replying.

“Can Miss Tredworth give no explanation, has she no idea as to how the stains came on her dress?”

“None whatever,” was the emphatic answer.

“You are absolutely sure of that?”

Kelson jumped up from his chair.  “Hugh, what are you driving at?” he cried, his eyes full of vague suspicion.  “I—­I don’t understand the cool way you are taking this.  There is something behind it.  Tell me.  I will know; I have a right.”

Evidently the man was almost beside himself with the fear of something he could not comprehend.  Gifford rose and laid a hand sympathetically on his shoulder.  “I am sorry to seem so brutal, Harry,” he said gently, “but this discovery does not surprise me.”