ondering
yesterday whether to believe or not. Here are the items, and you can
judge for yourself what my state of mind was when I was carrying about
the following precious pieces of information."

He ticked the items off on his fingers.

"A mysterious man who entered the garden one night and left his
footprints in the gravel, and whose visit had a strange and mysterious
effect on Rattar. Funny feelings produced in the bosom of the housemaid
by the presence of her master. Doors of unused rooms mysteriously locked
and keys taken away; said to be old papers inside. Mysterious visit of
mysterious man at dead of night to remove the said papers. A ring that
couldn't come off the owner's finger mysteriously lost. Mysterious
burglary on night of the murder by mysterious burglar who left all
windows and doors locked behind him and took nothing away. Mysterious
perambulations of his garden every night at nine o'clock by Mr. Simon
Rattar."

"Great Scot!" murmured Cromarty.

"I have given you the items in what turned out to be their order of
date, but I got them higgledy-piggledy and served up in a sauce of
mystery and trembly sensations that left me utterly flummoxed as to how
much--if anything--was sober fact. However, I began by fastening on to
two things. The first was the burglary, which of course at once
suggested the possibility that the man who had committed the crime at
Keldale had returned to Rattar's house and got in by that window. The
second was the nightly perambulations, which could easily be tested.
When Mr. Rattar emerged at nine that night, I was in the garden before
him. And what do you think he did?"

"Had a look at his brother's grave?"

"Smoked two pipes of tobacco! A man who was an anti-tobacco fanatic! The
truth hit me straight in the eye--'That man is not Simon Rattar!' And
then of course everything dropped into its place. The ex-convict twin
brother, the only evidence of whose supposititious death was an
announcement in the paper, obviously put in as a blind. The personal
resemblance between the two. All the yarns told me by the housemaid,
including the strange visitor--George of course arriving; the man who
came for the papers--George himself taking out the body; and the
vanished ring. Everything fitted in now, and the correspondence between
Sir Reginald and Rattar which had beaten me before, gave the clue at
once as to motive."

"I guess you felt you had deserved a drink that trip!" said Ned.