the burglary, and after leaving open the secret drawer which had contained the letters, to report the burglary to the police.  When Sir Horace came home unexpectedly Hill had just removed the letters and had them in his possession.  Hill was greatly perturbed at his master’s unexpected return, and had to get an opportunity to replace the letters in the secret drawer, but Sir Horace told him to go home, as he was not wanted till the morning.  Hill went to that girl’s flat in Westminster, and there saw Birchill.  He told Birchill that Sir Horace had returned unexpectedly, but he urged Birchill to carry out the burglary as arranged, and assured him that as Sir Horace was a heavy sleeper there would be no risk if he waited until Sir Horace went to bed.  Hill’s position was that if the burglary was postponed Sir Horace might make the discovery that the letters had been stolen from the secret drawer.  In that case Sir Horace would immediately suspect Hill, who, he knew, was an ex-convict.  It was just possible that Sir Horace, before going to bed, would discover that the letters had been stolen—­that is, if he went to bed before Birchill got into the place—­but Hill had to take that risk.

It was the fact that the burglary Hill had arranged with Birchill took place on the night Sir Horace was killed that had given rise to the false clues which had misled the police.  Crewe, as he himself modestly put it, was so fortunate as to get on the right track from the start His suspicions were directed to Holymead when he saw the latter carrying away a walking-stick from Riversbrook after his visit of condolence to Miss Fewbanks.  Crewe explained what tactics he had adopted to obtain a brief inspection of the stick in order to ascertain for his own satisfaction if it had belonged to Holymead.  His suspicions against Holymead were strengthened when he discovered that the latter, when driving to his hotel on the night of the tragedy, had thrown away a glove which was the fellow of the one found by the police in Sir Horace’s library.

“The next point to settle was whether Holymead had had anything to do with your father’s sudden return from Scotland,” said Crewe, continuing his story.  “If that proved to be the case, and if evidence could be obtained on which to justify the conclusion that these two old friends had had a deadly quarrel, the circumstantial evidence against Holymead as the man who killed your father was very strong.  I may say that before I went to Scotland I came across evidence of the estrangement of Holymead and his wife.  Do you remember when you and Mrs. Holymead were leaving the court after the inquest that Mr. Holymead came up and spoke to you?  He shook hands with you and was on the point of shaking hands with his wife as if she were a lady he had met casually.  Then, on the night of the murder, the taxi-cab driver at Hyde Park Corner drove him to his house at Princes Gate, but was ordered to drive back and take him to Verney’s Hotel.  All this was interesting to me—­doubly interesting in the light of the fact that Sir Horace had known Mrs. Holymead before her second marriage, and had paid her every attention.