am Roper would
come within the ken of the newspaper men. No one could tell them that he
was the great repository of facts in the case, and Mr. Flexen believed
that he had given him good cause to keep his mouth shut till he called on
him to open it.

Taking one thing with another, he thought it more than likely that the
newspaper men would not hinder him in his purpose of dealing with the
affair in his own way.

On the other hand, they might very well be used to help him discover the
unknown woman who had had the furious quarrel with Lord Loudwater at
about eleven o'clock. Indeed, he regarded the information about that
quarrel as a sop to be thrown to them. She afforded just the element of
melodrama in the case which would be most grateful to their different
newspapers, and provide them with plenty of the kind of headlines which
best sold them. It was certain that James Hutchings would also occupy
their attention. The fact that he had been discharged with contumely and
threats, that he had departed uttering violent threats against the dead
man, and that he had returned to visit Elizabeth Twitcher late that
night, were doubtless being discussed by the whole neighbourhood.
However, only himself and William Roper knew, at present, that James
Hutchings had come and gone by the library window, had actually passed
twice within a few feet of his sleeping, or dead, master. That fact,
also, Mr. Flexen proposed to keep to himself till he saw reason to
divulge it. His next business must be to question Hutchings.

It was quite likely that there lay the solution of the mystery.

CHAPTER X

It would have been easy enough for Mr. Flexen to send for Hutchings to
the Castle and question him there. But he did not. In the first place, he
did not think it fair to a man who had already prejudiced himself so
seriously by his threats against the murdered man. Besides, he would be
at a disadvantage, under a greater strain at the Castle, and Mr. Flexen
wanted him where he would be at his best, for he wished to be able to
form an exact judgment of the likelihood of his being the murderer.
Indeed, it must be a very careful and exact judgment, for he felt that he
was moving in deep waters; that it was a case in which it was possible,
even easy, to go hopelessly wrong. Also, he was fully alive to the fact
that if threatened men live long, the men who threaten are to blame for
it, and that threats such as Hutchings' are the commonest thi