Sitting idly by, I could not for the life of me see just what good it did for me to be there, and I said as much.  Kennedy laughed quietly.

“You’re a material witness, Walter,” he replied.  “Perhaps I shall need you some day to testify that I actually found these spots in this room.”

Just then Tom stuck his head in.  “Can I help?” he asked.  “Why didn’t you tell me you were going at it so early?”

“No, thanks,” answered Craig, rising from the floor.  “I was just making a careful examination of the room before anyone was up so that nobody would think I was too interested.  I’ve finished.  But you can help me, after all.  Do you think you could describe exactly how everyone was dressed that night?”

“Why, I can try.  Let me see.  To begin with, uncle had on a shooting-jacket—­that was pretty well burnt, as you know.  Why, in fact, we all had our shooting-jackets on.  The ladies were in white.”

Craig pondered a little, but did not seem disposed to pursue the subject further, until Tom volunteered the information that since the tragedy none of them had been wearing their shooting jackets.

“We’ve all been wearing city clothes,” he remarked.

“Could you get your Uncle James and your Cousin Junior to go with you for an hour or two this morning on the lake, or on a tramp in the woods?” asked Craig after a moment’s thought.

“Really, Craig,” responded Tom doubtfully, “I ought to go to Saranac to complete the arrangements for taking Uncle Lewis’s body to New York.”

“Very well, persuade them to go with you.  Anything, so long as you keep me from interruption for an hour or two.”

They agreed on doing that, and as by that time most of the family were up, we went in to breakfast, another silent and suspicious meal.

After breakfast Kennedy tactfully withdrew from the family, and I did the same.  We wandered off in the direction of the stables and there fell to admiring some of the horses.  The groom, who seemed to be a sensible and pleasant sort of fellow, was quite ready to talk, and soon he and Craig were deep in discussing the game of the north country.

“Many rabbits about here?” asked Kennedy at length, when they had exhausted the larger game.

“Oh, yes.  I saw one this morning, sir,” replied the groom.

“Indeed?” said Kennedy.  “Do you suppose you could catch a couple for me?”

“Guess I could, sir—­alive, you mean?”

“Oh, yes, alive—­I don’t want you to violate the game laws.  This is the closed season, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir, but then it’s all right, sir, here on the estate.”

“Bring them to me this afternoon, or—­no, keep them here in the stable in a cage and let me know when you have them.  If anybody asks you about them, say they belong to Mr. Tom.”

Craig handed a small treasury note to the groom, who took it with a grin and touched his hat.