what did Mr. Rattar do with the piece of mud?"

"Just threw it out of the window."

The sympathetic stranger crossed to the window and looked out.

"Grass underneath, I see," he observed. "No footprints outside, I
suppose?"

"No, sir."

"Did the police come down and make enquiries?"

"Well, sir, the master said he would inform the pollis, but then came
the news of the murder, and no one had any thoughts for anything else
after that."

The sympathetic visitor stood by the window very thoughtfully for a few
moments, and then turned and rewarded her with the most charming smile.

"Thank you awfully for showing me all this," said he. "By the way,
what's your name?" She told him and he added with a still nicer smile,
"Thank you, Mary!"

They returned to the library and he sat down before the table again, but
just as he was going to pick up the pen a thought seemed to strike him.

"By the way," he said, "I remember hearing something about the loss of a
ring. The burglar didn't take that, did he?"

"Oh, no, sir, I remember the advertisement was in the paper before the
night of the burglary."

He opened his eyes and then smiled.

"Brilliant police you've got!" he murmured, and took up the pen again.

"There was another burglar here and he might have taken it!" said Mary
in a low voice.

The visitor once more dropped the pen and looked up with a start.

"Another burglar!" he exclaimed.

"Well, sir, this one didn't actually burgle, but--"

She thought of the master if he chanced to learn how she had been
gossiping, and her sentence was cut short in the midst.

"Yes, Mary! You were saying?" cooed the persuasive visitor, and Mary
succumbed again and told him of that night when a shadow moved into the
trees and footprints were left in the gravel outside the library window,
and the master looked so strangely in the morning. Her visitor was so
interested that once she began it was really impossible to stop.

"How very strange!" he murmured, and there was no doubt he meant it.

"But about the master's ring, sir--" she began.

"You say he looked as though he were being _watched_?" he interrupted,
but it was quite a polite and gentle interruption.

"Yes, sir; but the funny thing about losing the ring was that he never
could get it off his finger before! I've seen him trying to, but oh, it
wouldn't nearly come off!"

Again he sat up and gazed at her.

"Another mystery!" he murmured. "He lost a ring which wou