t I didn't like to. After the murder was discovered I was sent
over to the village to fetch the police and the doctor, and while I was
hurrying through the woods near the moat-house I thought I saw a man
crouching behind one of the trees near the carriage drive. He seemed to
be looking towards me. When I looked again he was gone."

"And what did you do?"

"I called out, but received no answer, so I hurried on."

Colwyn scrutinized the butler with a thoughtful penetrating glance. The
butler bore the look with the meek air of a domestic animal who knows
that he is being appraised.

"Am I the first person to whom you have told this story?" the detective
asked after a pause.

"Yes, sir."

"Why did you not inform the police officers when they were investigating
the case?"

"For several reasons, sir. It seemed to me, when I came to think it
over, that it must have been my fancy, and then it passed out of my mind
in the worry and excitement of the house. Then, when I did think of it
again, I didn't like to mention it to Superintendent Merrington, because
he was such a bullying sort of gentleman that I felt quite nervous of
him. Really, for a gentleman who has travelled with Royal Highnesses, as
I've heard tell, and might be supposed to know how gentlemen behave, the
way he treated the servants while he was here was almost too much for
flesh and blood to bear." The butler's withered cheeks flushed faintly
at the recollection. "I couldn't bring myself to tell him, sir."

Colwyn smiled slightly. He was not unacquainted with Merrington's
methods of cross-examination.

"You could have spoken to Detective Caldew, the other officer engaged in
the case," he said.

"Young Tom Caldew!" exclaimed the butler, in manifest surprise.

"You know him then?"

"I know him, but I cannot say I know any good of him," rejoined the
butler severely. "Young Tom Caldew was born and bred in this village,
and an idle young vagabond he was. Many a time have I dusted his jacket
for stealing chestnuts in our park. The place was well rid of him, I
take it, when he ran away to London and joined the police force. No,
sir, I really couldn't see myself confiding in young Tom Caldew."

"And why have you confided in me now?"

"Well, sir, it was the arrest of the young woman that set me thinking,
and caused me to wonder whether I'd done right in keeping this back.
What I thought I saw that night may have been merely fancy on my part,
but it took on