“No.  Have you?”

“Yes.  The affair interested me, and as soon as I recognized the old Italian knife in the hand of the keeper, I went up there and looked about.  I am glad I did so, for I found something which seems to have escaped the notice of the detectives.”

“And what’s that?” I asked eagerly.

“Why, about three yards from the pool of blood where the unfortunate foreigner was found is another small pool of blood where the grass and ferns around are all crushed down as though there had been a struggle there.”

“There may have been a struggle at that spot, and the man may have staggered some distance before he fell dead.”

“Not if he had been struck in the heart, as they say.  He would fall, would he not?” she suggested.  “No.  The police seem very dense, and this plain fact has not yet occurred to them.  Their theory is the same as what you suggest, but my own is something quite different, Mr. Gregg.  I believe that a second person also fell a victim,” she added in a low, distinct tone.

I gazed at her open-mouthed.  Did she, I wondered, know the actual truth?  Was she aware that the woman who had fallen there had disappeared?

“A second person!” I echoed, as though in surprise.  “Then do you believe that a double murder was committed?”

“I draw my conclusion from the fact that the young man, on being struck in the heart, could not have gone such a distance as that which separates the one mark from the other.”

“But he might have been slightly wounded—­on the hand, or in the face—­at first, and then at the spot where he was found struck fatally,” I suggested.

She shook her head dubiously, but made no reply to my argument.  Her confidence in her own surmises made it quite apparent that by some unknown means she was aware of the second victim.  Indeed, a few moments later she said to me: 

“It is for this reason, Mr. Gregg, that I have sought you in confidence.  Nobody must know that I have come here to you, or they would suspect; and if suspicion fell upon me it would bring upon me a fate worse than death.  Remember, therefore, that my future is entirely in your hands.”

“I don’t quite understand,” I said, rising and standing before her in the fading twilight, while the rain drove upon the old diamond window panes.  “But I can only assure you that whatever confidence you repose in me, I shall never abuse, Miss Leithcourt.”

“I know, I know!” she said quickly.  “I trust you in this matter implicitly.  I have come to you for many reasons, chief of them being that if a second victim has fallen beneath the hand of the assassin, it is, I know, a woman.”

“A woman!  Whom?”

“At present I cannot tell you.  I must first establish the true facts.  If this woman were really stricken down, then her body lies concealed somewhere in the vicinity.  We must find it and bring home the crime to the guilty one.”