risky to himself that only a combination of lucky chances saw him
safely through the adventure? Nothing--absolutely nothing but homicidal
mania could possibly account for such a performance, and the man was
obviously as sane as you or I. I felt certain that there was something
wrong somewhere, but as for suspecting him of being the principal in the
crime, the idea was stark lunacy!"

"By George, it was a tough proposition!" said Ned. "By the way, had you
heard of George Rattar at that time?"

"Oh, yes, I heard of him, and knew they resembled one another, but as I
was told that he had left the place for years and was now dead, my
thoughts never even once ran in that direction until I got into a state
of desperation, and then I merely surmised that his misdeeds might have
been at the bottom of some difficulty between Simon and Sir Reginald."

"Then how on earth did you ever get on to the right track?"

"I never would have if the man hadn't given himself away. To begin with,
he was fool enough to fall in with my perfectly genuine assumption that
he was either employing me or acting for my employer. No doubt he stood
to score if the bluff had come off, and he banked on your stipulation
that your name shouldn't appear. But if he had only been honest in that
matter, my suspicions would never have started--not at that point
anyhow."

"That was Providence--sure!" said Ned with conviction.

"I'm inclined to think it was," agreed Carrington. "Then again his
advice to Sir Malcolm and Miss Farmond was well enough designed to
further his own scheme of throwing suspicion on them, but it simply
ended in his being bowled out both times, and throwing suspicion on
himself. But _the_ precaution which actually gave him away was putting
in that advertisement about his ring."

"I was just wondering," said Ned, "how that did the trick."

"By the merest fluke. I noticed it when I was making enquiries at the
Police Office on quite different lines, but you can imagine that I
switched off my other enquiries pretty quick when Superintendent
Sutherland calmly advanced the theory that the ring was stolen when
Rattar's house was entered by some one unknown on the very night of the
murder!"

"This is the first I've heard of that!" cried Ned.

"It was the first I had, but it led me straight to Rattar's house and a
long heart to heart talk with his housemaid. That was when I collected
that extraordinary mixed bag of information which I was w