been rather hoping to come
across you. When you questioned me about my doings on the night of
Loudwater's death, you asked me whether I heard him snore as I went
through the library, going in and out of the Castle, and for reasons
which seemed quite good to me at the time I told you I didn't. As a
matter of fact, he was snoring like a pig when I came out."

Mr. Flexen looked at him hard, thinking quickly. Then he said softly: "My
goodness! That would be half-past eleven!"

"Close on it," said Grey.

"Well as a matter of fact, I didn't believe you," said Mr. Flexen
frankly. "In my business, you know, one acquires a very good ear for
the truth."

Grey laughed cheerfully and said: "I expect you do."

"All the same, I'm glad to have it for certain," said Mr. Flexen, smiling
at him. "Well, I must be getting on; let me give you a lift as far as
Loudwater."

Grey thanked him and stepped into the car.

When he had set him down, Mr. Flexen drove on in frowning thought.
Colonel Grey was speaking the truth, and in that case neither James
Hutchings nor the mysterious woman had committed the murder, unless they
had deliberately returned for the purpose. He did not believe that James
Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious
woman had returned.

Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey
assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder.
Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned
that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified
the problem.

The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable
to Captain Shepherd. It ran:

_Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a
year and gave her Crest_.

He had the mysterious woman at last!

He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that
Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He
could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past
half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat.

The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and
announced him.

Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set.
She looked surprised to hear his name.

"Mrs. Truslove?" he said.

"I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But
now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so