ough his nerves were ready to snap.

Wardrop was a man of perhaps twenty-seven, as tall as I, although not so
heavy, with direct blue eyes and fair hair; altogether a manly and
prepossessing sort of fellow. I was not surprised that Margery Fleming
had found him attractive--he had the blond hair and off-hand manner that
women seem to like. I am dark, myself.

He seemed surprised to find Hunter there, and not particularly pleased,
but he followed us to the upper floor and watched silently while Hunter
went over the two rooms. Beside the large chest of drawers in the main
attic Hunter found perhaps half a dozen drops of blood, and on the edge
of the open drawer there were traces of more. In the inner room two
trunks had been moved out nearly a foot, as he found by the faint dust
that had been under them. With the stain on the stair rail, that was all
he discovered, and it was little enough. Then he took out his note-book
and there among the trunks we had a little seance of our own, in which
Hunter asked questions, and whoever could do so answered them.

"Have you a pencil or pen, Mr. Knox?" he asked me, but I had none.
Wardrop felt his pockets, with no better success.

"I have lost my fountain pen somewhere around the house to-day," he said
irritably. "Here's a pencil--not much of one."

Hunter began his interrogations.

"How old was Miss Maitland--Miss Jane, I mean?"

"Sixty-five," from Margery.

"She had always seemed rational? Not eccentric, or childish?"

"Not at all; the sanest woman I ever knew." This from Wardrop.

"Has she ever, to your knowledge, received any threatening letters?"

"Never in all her life," from both of them promptly.

"You heard sounds, you say, Miss Fleming. At what time?"

"About half-past one or perhaps a few minutes later. The clock struck
two while I was still awake and nervous."

"This person who was walking through the attics here--would you say it
was a heavy person? A man, I mean?"

Margery stopped to think.

"Yes," she said finally. "It was very stealthy, but I think it was a
man's step."

"You heard no sound of a struggle? No voices? No screams?"

"None at all," she said positively. And I added my quota.

"There could have been no such sounds," I said. "I sat in my room and
smoked until a quarter to two. I heard nothing until then, when I heard
Mr. Wardrop trying to get into the house. I went down to admit him,
and--I found the front door open about an inch."

Hu