howed him that Edith Morriston had
turned again to the window and resumed her former attitude.

In the library were the chief constable, Gervase Henshaw and a local
detective.

"Now, Major Freeman," Morriston said as he closed the door, "we shall be
glad to hear this new piece of evidence."

Major Freeman bowed. "Shortly, it comes to this," he began. "A young
woman named Martha Haynes, belonging to Branchester, called at my office
this morning and made a statement which, if reliable, must have an
important bearing on this mysterious case.

"It appears from her story that on the night of the Hunt Ball held here
she had been paying a visit to some friends at Rapscot, a village, as you
know, about a mile beyond Wynford. On her way back to the town, for which
she started at about 9.45, she took as a short cut the right-of-way path
running across the park and passing near the house. As she went by she
was naturally attracted by the lighted windows and could hear the band
quite plainly. She stopped to listen to the music at a point which she
has indicated, almost directly opposite the tower.

"She says she had stood there for some little time when her attention
was suddenly diverted to what seemed a mysterious movement on the
outside of the tower. A dark body, presumably a human being, appeared to
be slowly sliding down the wall from the topmost window. Unfortunately
before she could quite realize what she was looking at--and we may
imagine that a country girl would take some little time to grasp so
unusual a situation--a cloud drifted across the moon and threw the
tower into shadow.

"The girl continued, however, to keep her eyes fixed on the spot where
she had seen the dark object descending, with the result that in a few
seconds she saw it reach and pass over one side of the window of the
lower room which was sufficiently lighted up to silhouette anything
placed before it. She saw the object move slowly over the window and
disappear in the darkness beneath it. When, a few seconds later, the moon
came out again nothing more was to be seen.

"The girl stayed for some time watching the tower, but without result.
She is a more or less ignorant, unsophisticated country-woman, and what
she had seen she was quite unable to account for. Naturally she hardly
connected it with any sort of tragical occurrence. The house with its
lights and music seemed given over to gaiety; that any one should just
then have met his death in