block were out--had
burnt out, or something. The only light I could see was down at the
corner, where Manniston Road goes into Freeman Avenue--and that didn't
give any light where I was."

"That's true," Bristow said sharply, "but, from where you sat, anybody
going up or down the steps of Number Five would have been directly
between you and the avenue light. Isn't that so?"

"Yes."

"All right--go ahead. What did you see?"

Morley hitched back his chair still further. He had begun to perspire,
and he kept running his fingers round his neck between flesh and collar.

"It was raining," he went on, his voice strained and metallic, "a fine
drizzle at that time, and this made a circle of light, a kind of bright
screen around the avenue light. Things that happened on, or near, the
steps of Number Five were silhouetted against that screen of light.

"I'd been there just a little while when I noticed some kind of movement
on the steps of Number Five. It was a man coming down the steps. He was
very careful about it, and very slow; looked like a man on his tiptoes."

Bristow maintained his attitude of hanging over him, urging him on,
forcing him to talk. Braceway and Major Ross, their faces wearing
strained expressions, bent forward in their chairs, catching every
syllable that came from the prisoner.

"He went down the steps and turned down Manniston Road, toward the
avenue."

"All right!" Bristow prompted. "What then?"

"That was all there was to that. I just sat there. It looked funny to me,
but I didn't follow him. I wondered what he'd been doing. I never thought
about murder or--or anything like that. I swear I didn't!"

He licked his lips and gulped.

"I sat there, I don't know how much longer it was--pretty long, I
suppose. I didn't keep my glance always toward Number Five.

"When I did look that way again, I saw another man come down the steps
quietly, very cautiously. He turned toward me, but he came only far
enough up to cut in between Number Five and Number Seven. He disappeared
that way, between the two houses."

"Did you see the struggle?" Braceway asked sharply.

Bristow scowled at the interruption.

"What struggle?" Morley retorted, vacant eyes turned toward Braceway.

"You know! The struggle between two men at the foot of the steps of
Number Five."

"I didn't see a struggle," said Morley. "There wasn't any."

"You might as well tell it straight now as later. Give me the truth about
that st