d a short flight or a long one?"

"He says he was not given detective-duty--that he was placed there to
keep watch over the body of the young girl;--that at a certain moment he
imagined himself to hear a stealthy footstep approaching from the farther
end of the gallery, and anxious to spot the man yielding to so doubtful a
curiosity, he approached the arch separating his section from the
adjoining one, and stopping just inside, stood for a moment or so,
listening. As this involved the turning of his back upon the court and
consequently upon the opposite gallery, it gave Travis just the
opportunity he needed for an unobserved escape. But I see you are not
very much impressed by the reason I have advanced for believing his story
and placing him where he says he was placed, behind the eastern pedestal.
You doubtless think that if the officer opposite had stood long enough
with his back to the court, Travis might have taken those extra thirty
steps as easily as the twenty he had confessed to. Listen, then, to my
second reason, or rather, step this way."

Leading his superior toward Room B, the door of which stood wide open, he
paused just outside the threshold to note the effect produced upon the
Inspector by what he saw inside. Evidently it was as marked with surprise
as the detective had calculated upon, for with an air of great
astonishment the Inspector turned upon him with the whispered
exclamation:

"Travis here! where he could listen--see----"

"Yes. Take a good look at him, Inspector. It won't trouble him any. I
doubt if he would notice us if we stepped into the room."

And such was the opinion of the Inspector himself, as he remarked the
extreme excitement under which the Englishman was laboring. Absorbed in
thoughts of his own, he was pacing the room with long strides, turning
mechanically as he met some impediment, but otherwise oblivious to his
surroundings, even to the point of not noting the presence of Sweetwater,
who stood quietly watching him from one of the corners.

This display of feeling was certainly eloquent enough to attract anyone's
attention, but what gave it impressiveness to the official mind was this:
his excitement was that of triumph, not fear, of hope without any trace
of confusion.

"It is not of himself he is thinking," muttered Gryce.

"And he stood _here_?"

"No--we left him free to move about at will, and his will carried him
into full view of the whole performance."

"And Sw