eredith. The labourer had stared
after the retreating figure until it disappeared in the darkness, and
had then gone home without thinking any more of the incident. Caldew was
so impressed by the significance of the second appearance of the man in
the trench-coat that he had timed himself in a fast walk over the same
ground from Weydene to the moat-house, and was able to cover the
distance in half an hour. On the basis of these facts, he pointed out to
Merrington that, if Nepcote was the man who left the train at Weydene at
seven o'clock, he had time to walk across the fields and reach the
moat-house by half-past seven, which was ten minutes before the murder
was committed.

Merrington admitted the possibility, but refused to accept the
inference. He was forced by recent events to accept the theory of
Nepcote's implication in the mystery, but he was not prepared to believe
without much more definite proof that he was the murderer. He was still
strong in his belief that Hazel Rath was the person who had killed Mrs.
Heredith, whatever the young man's share in the crime might be. The
discovery about the man in the trench-coat was all very well as far as
it went, and perhaps formed another clue in the puzzling set of
circumstances of the case, but it did not carry them very far, and
certainly did nothing to lessen the weight of evidence against the girl
who was charged with the murder.

Merrington was forced back on the conclusion that the most important
step towards the solution of the mystery was to lay hold of Nepcote, and
to that end he directed his own efforts and that of the service of the
great organization at his command. As the days went on, he supplemented
his original arrangements for Nepcote's arrest with guileful traps. The
female dragon who guarded masculine reputations at 10, Sherryman Street,
was badgered into cold anger by pretty girls, who sought with tips and
blandishments to glean scraps of information about the missing tenant.
Scented letters in female handwriting, marked "Important," appeared in
the letter racks of Nepcote's West End clubs. Merrington even inserted
an advertisement in the "Personal" column of the _Times_, setting forth
a touching female appeal to Nepcote for a meeting in a sequestered spot.

At the end of three days, with no sign of Nepcote in that period,
Merrington was compelled to make application to the Sussex magistrates
for another adjournment of the police court proceedings, o