as aware already that he was dealing with a man
cast in no ordinary mold, but he did not expect this continued
meekness. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have grown restive
under such cross-examination, and betrayed their annoyance by word or
look; not so Hilton Fenley, who behaved as if it were the most natural
thing in the world that he should be tracked to his friends' residence
and made to explain his comings and goings during the day. Swayed by a
subconscious desire to nettle his victim into protest, Winter tried a
new tack.

"I suppose, Mr. Fenley, you have seen your father's solicitors today?"
he said suddenly.

"If you mean that question in the ordinary sense, I must tell you that
my father employed no firm of solicitors for family purposes. Of
course, at one time or another, he has availed himself of the services
of nearly every leading firm of lawyers in the City, but each
transaction was complete in itself. For instance, his will is a
holograph will, if that is what you are hinting at. He told me its
provisions at the time it was signed and witnessed, and I shall
surely find it in his private safe at the office."

"You have not looked for it today?"

"No. Why should I?"

Feeling distinctly nonplussed, for there was no denying that Fenley
had chosen the best possible way of carrying off a delicate situation,
Winter turned, walked slowly to a window and gazed down into the
street. He was perturbed, almost irritated, by a novel sense of
failure not often associated with the day's work. He had to confess
now that he had made no material stride in an inquiry the solution of
which did not seem, at the outset, to offer any abnormal difficulty.

True, there were circumstances which might serve to incriminate Robert
Fenley; but if that young man were really responsible for the crime,
he was what "the Yard" classes privately as a monumental idiot, since
his subsequent conduct was well calculated to arouse the suspicion
which the instinct of self-preservation would try to avert. A long
experience of the methods of criminals warned Winter of the folly of
jumping at conclusions, but he would be slow to admit and hard to be
convinced that Robert Fenley took any active part in his father's
murder.

Of course, it was not with a view toward indulging in a reverie that
he approached the window. He was setting a simple trap, into which
many a man and woman had fallen. Any one of moderately strong
character ca