large room. A few people were to be seen in this latter place, and his
first instinct was to join them; but finding that a few minutes yet
remained before the hour set for the services, he decided to improve them
by a rapid glance about this hall, which, for certain reasons hardly as
yet formulated in his own mind, had a peculiar interest for him.

The most important object within view, according to his present judgment,
was the staircase which connected it with the floor above; but if you had
asked his reason for this conclusion, he would not have told you, as
Ranelagh might have done, that it was because it was the most direct and
convenient approach to Carmel Cumberland's room. His thoughts were far
from this young girl, intimately connected as she was with this crime;
which shows through what a blind maze he was insensibly working. With his
finger on the thread which had been put in his hand, he was feeling his
way along inch by inch. It had brought him to this staircase, and it led
him next to a rack upon which hung several coats and a gentleman's hat.

He inspected the former and noted that one was finished with a high
collar; but he passed the latter by--it was not a derby. The table stood
next the rack, and on its top lay nothing more interesting than a
clothes-brush and one or two other insignificant objects; but, with his
memory for details, he had recalled the keys which one of the maids had
picked up somewhere about this house, and laid on a hall table. If this
were the hall and this the table, then was every inch of the latter's
simple cloth-covered top of the greatest importance in his eyes.

He had no further time for even these cursory investigations; Hexford's
step could be heard on the verandah, and Sweetwater was anxious to locate
himself before the officer came in. Entering the room before him, he
crossed to the small group clustered in its further doorway. There were
several empty chairs in sight; but he passed around them all to a dark
and inconspicuous corner, from which, without effort, he could take in
every room on that floor--from the large parlour in which the casket
stood, to the remotest region of the servants' hall.

The clergyman had not yet descended, and Sweetwater had time to observe
the row of little girls sitting in front of the bearers, each with a
small cluster of white flowers in her hand. Miss Cumberland's
Sunday-school class, he conjectured, and conjectured rightly. He also