de of the dining-room
door. I did not go into the house at all that morning, as I believe I
have already told Mr. Ferris."

"_Very_ good! It will all be simpler than I thought. You came up to the
house and went away again without coming in; ran away, I may say, taking
the direction of the swamp."

The prisoner did not deny it.

"You remember all the incidents of that short flight?"

The prisoner's lip curled.

"Remember leaping the fence and stumbling a trifle when you came down?"

"Yes."

"Very well; now tell me how could Miss Dare see you do that from Mrs.
Clemmens' house?"

"Did Miss Dare tell you she saw me trip after I jumped the fence?"

"She did."

"And yet was in Professor Darling's observatory, a mile or so away?"

"Yes."

A satirical laugh broke from the prisoner.

"I think," said he, "that instead of my telling you how she could have
seen this from Mrs. Clemmens' house, you should tell me how she could
have seen it from Professor Darling's observatory."

"That is easy enough. She was looking through a telescope."

"What?"

"At the moment you were turning from Mrs. Clemmens' door, Miss Dare,
perched in the top of Professor Darling's house, was looking in that
very direction through a telescope."

"I--I would like to believe that story," said the prisoner, with
suppressed emotion. "It would----"

"What?" urged the detective, calmly.

"Make a new man of me," finished Mansell, with a momentary burst of
feeling.

"Well, then, call up your memories of the way your aunt's house is
situated. Recall the hour, and acknowledge that, if Miss Dare was with
her, she must have been in the dining-room."

"There is no doubt about that."

"Now, how many windows has the dining-room?"

"One."

"How situated?"

"It is on the same side as the door."

"There is none, then, which looks down to that place where you leaped
the fence?"

"No."

"How account for her seeing that little incident, then, of your
stumbling?"

"She might have come to the door, stepped out, and so seen me."

"Humph! I see you have an answer for every thing."

Craik Mansell was silent.

A look of admiration slowly spread itself over the detective's face.

"We must probe the matter a little deeper," said he. "I see I have a
hard head to deal with." And, bringing his glance a little nearer to the
prisoner, he remarked:

"If she had been standing there you could not have turned round without
seeing her?"

"No."