Yet it needed no examination to tell me that the eyeglasses were Captain Branscome’s.  I recognized the delicate cable pattern of their gold rims, glinting in the sunlight.  I recognized the ring and the frayed scrap of black ribbon attached to it.  I remembered the guinea with which Captain Branscome had paid my fare on the coach.  I remembered Miss Plinlimmon’s account of the stolen cashbox.

The more my suspicions grew, the more they were incredible.  That Captain Branscome, of all men in the world, should be guilty of such a crime!  And yet, with this damning evidence in my hand, I could not but recall a dozen trifles—­mere straws, to be sure—­all pointing towards him.  He had been here in my father’s garden:  that I might take as proven.  With what object?  And if that object were an innocent one, why had he not told me of his intention to visit Minden Cottage?  I remembered how straitly he had cross-examined me, a while ago, on the topography of the cottage, on my father’s household and his habits.  Again, if his visit had been an innocent one, why, last evening, had he said nothing of it?  Why, when I questioned him about his holiday, had he answered me so confusedly?  Yet again, I recalled his demeanour when Mrs. Stimcoe handed me the letter, and the impression it gave me—­so puzzling at the moment—­that he had foreknowledge of the news.  If this incredible thing were true—­if Captain Branscome were the criminal—­the puzzle ceased to be a puzzle; the guinea and the broken cashbox were only too fatally accounted for.

Nevertheless, and in spite of the guinea, in spite even of the eyeglass there in my hand, I could not bring myself to believe.  What?  Captain Branscome, the simple-minded, the heroic?  Captain Branscome, of the threadbare coat and the sword of honour?  Poor he was, no doubt—­bitterly poor—­poor almost to starvation at times.  To what might not a man be driven by poverty in this degree?  And here was evidence for judge and jury.

I glanced around me, and, folding the eyeglasses together in a fumbling haste, slipped them into my breeches-pocket.  From my seat beneath the flagstaff I looked straight into the doorway of the summer-house; but a creeper obscured its rustic window, dimming the light within; and a terror seized me that some one was concealed there, watching me—­a terror not unlike that which had held me in Captain Coffin’s lodgings.

While I stood there, summoning up courage to invade the summer-house and make sure, my brain harked back to Captain Coffin and the man Aaron Glass.  Captain Coffin had taken leave of me in a fever to reach Minden Cottage.  That was close on sixty hours ago—­three nights and two days.  Why, in that ample time, had he not arrived, and what had become of him?  Plinny had seen no such man.

I fetched a tight grip on my courage, walked across to the doorway, and peered into the summer-house.  It was empty, and I stepped inside—­superstitiously avoiding, as I did so, to tread on the spot where my father’s body had lain.