u looking?"

"Behind me."

"When you threw the phial out?"

"Yes."

"What was there behind you?"

"A dead sister." Oh, the indescribable tone!

"Nothing else?"

"No."

"Forgive me, Miss Cumberland, I do not want to trouble you, but was there
not something or some one in the adjoining room besides your dead sister,
to make you look back?"

"I saw no one. But I looked back--I do not know why."

"And didn't you turn at all?"

"I do not think so."

"You threw the phial out without looking?"

"Yes."

"How do you know you threw it out?"

"I felt it slip from my hand."

"Where?"

"Over the window ledge. I had pulled the window open before I turned my
head. I had only to feel for the sill. When I touched its edge, I opened
my fingers."

Triumph for the defence. Cross-examination on this point had only served
to elucidate a mysterious fact. The position of the phial, caught in the
vines, was accounted for in a very natural manner.

Mr. Fox shifted his inquiries.

"You have said that you wore a hat and coat of your brother's in coming
to the club-house? Did you keep these articles on?"

"No; I left them in the lower hall."

"Where in the lower hall?"

"On the rack there."

"Was your candle lit?"

"Not then, sir."

"Yet you found the rack?"

"I felt for it. I knew where it was."

"When did you light the candle?"

"After I hung up the coat."

"And when you came down? Did you have the candle then?"

"Yes, for a while. But I didn't have any light when I went for the coat
and hat. I remember feeling all along the wall. I don't know what I did
with the candlestick or the candle. I had them on the stairs; I didn't
have them when I put on the coat and hat."

I knew what she did with them. She flung them out of her hand upon the
marble floor. Should I ever forget the darkness swallowing up that face
of mental horror and physical suffering.

"Miss Cumberland, you are sure about having telephoned for help, and that
you mentioned The Whispering Pines in doing so?"

"Quite sure." Oh, what weariness was creeping into her voice!

"Then, of course, you left the door unlocked when you went out of the
building?"

"No--no, I didn't. I had the key and I locked it. But I didn't realise
this till I went to untie my horse; then I found the keys in my hand. But
I didn't go back."

"Do you mean that you didn't know you locked the door?"

"I don't remember whether I knew or not at the time. I do remem