“Then you admit that you called at the house?”

“Yes.”

“You were dressed in a gray suit and wore a slouch hat, and you entered by the back way?”

“How did you learn all that?” cried the young commercial traveler in astonishment.

“Never mind.  In coming away you slipped and fell, and your hat dropped off.”

Tom Ostrello nodded.  “I understand that somebody must have noticed me after all.  I came in by the back way because I missed the train for Sidham, and took that which stops only at Chester.  It is a short cut through the woods from Chester Station to the Langmore place.  When I came away I had just time enough to catch another train at Chester, and I was very anxious to get back to the city, for I had an important engagement with one of my customers.”

“I understand.  Proceed, please.”

“I came to the house for two reasons.  In the first place, as perhaps you know, my brother, Dick, is a spendthrift, and works occasionally only.  He got into a scrape in Los Angeles, and telegraphed me to help him out financially.  It was an old plea, but I thought if I left him to himself my mother would not forgive me.  I did not have money enough to help him by myself, for my capital was tied up in such a fashion that I could not get at it.  More than that, I had in my possession two one hundred dollar bills, which my mother had gotten from Mr. Langmore, and both of these were counterfeits.”

“One of those bills you had tried to pass at a theatre, eh?”

“Ha!  You know that, too!  Then you have been following me up?”

“The United States Government has been trying to follow up those bills for several years.”

“I came to the house and saw my mother.  Mr. Langmore had gone to the bank.  There had been a family row, but that was not all of the trouble.  Mr. Langmore was strangely excited, so my mother said, and had declared he was going to have somebody arrested, before the week was out.”

“On account of the counterfeits?”

“Either that, or on account of a patent.  She said he had sent off several letters and was also going to telegraph to somebody.  She said he had asked her to give back the hundred dollar bills, and had been much disturbed when she told him that I had them.  She took the bills back and gave me good money for them, and also gave me two hundred dollars more, to forward to my brother Dick, which I did, adding a hundred of my own.”

“Did your mother tell you anything more about the counterfeits?”

“No.”

“Did you see Miss Langmore?”

“I did not, nor did I see the servant.  I was in a hurry, and so I came away as soon as my business was accomplished.”

“When you came away from the house and dropped your hat, did you go back again, crawling along by the bushes?”

“I certainly did not.”

“Did you see any other man around?”