ut for the
fact that the garden gate had been left wide open...."

Here followed an account of how the body was found and how further
investigation led the constable to the kitchen to make his second
gruesome discovery.

Colonel Boundary folded up the paper slowly and put it down. He had
bought a copy of an early edition of the evening newspaper as he was
stepping into his car, and now he was driving slowly through the park.
He lit a cigar and gazed stolidly from the window. But his face showed
no sign of mental perturbation.

The car had made the circuit of the Park twice when, turning again by
Marble Arch, he saw Crewe standing on the sidewalk. A word to his
chauffeur, and the machine drew up.

"Come in," he said curtly, and the other obeyed.

The hand that he lifted to take his cigarette from his lips trembled,
and the colonel eyed him with quiet amusement.

"They've got you rattled too, have they?" he said.

"My God! It's awful!" said Crewe. "Awful!"

"What's awful about it?" asked the colonel. "White's dead, ain't he? And
Raoul's dead, ain't he? Two men who might talk and give a lot of
trouble."

"What did he say before he died? That's what I've been thinking. What
did he say?"

"Who? Raoul?" demanded the colonel. He had asked himself the same
question before. "What could he say? Anyway, if he had a statement to
make, and his statement was worth taking, why, he'd be alive to-day!
Raoul was the one witness that they wanted, if they only knew it.
They've bungled pretty badly, whoever they are."

"This Jack o' Judgment," quavered Crewe, his mouth working. "Who is he?
What is he?"

"How do I know?" snarled the colonel. "You ask me these fool
questions--do you expect a reply? They're dead, and that's done with.
I'd sooner he killed Raoul than made a mess of my room, anyway!"

"Why did he do it?" asked Crewe.

The colonel growled something about fools and their questions, but
offered no explanation.

"It may have been a monkey trick to make us change, our quarters--the
stuff was sulphuretted hydrogen and asafoetida. It may have been just
bravado, but if he thinks he can scare me----"

He sucked viciously at his cigar end.

"I've got workmen in to strip the walls and re-paper the bit that's
soiled," he said. "I'll be back there to-night."

The colonel threw the end of his cigar from the window and relapsed into
moody reverie. When he spoke it was in a more cheerful tone.

"Crewe," he said, "that