ok, and three other maids, one a young
girl. One chauffeur, who's away with a broken wrist. No boy.'

'What about the gardener? You say nothing about that shadowy and
sinister figure, the gardener. You are keeping him in the background,
Murch. Play the game. Out with him--or I report you to the Rules
Committee.'

'The garden is attended to by a man in the village, who comes twice a
week. I've talked to him. He was here last on Friday.'

'Then I suspect him all the more,' said Trent. 'And now as to the house
itself. What I propose to do, to begin with, is to sniff about a little
in this room, where I am told Manderson spent a great deal of his time,
and in his bedroom; especially the bedroom. But since we're in this
room, let's start here. You seem to be at the same stage of the inquiry.
Perhaps you've done the bedrooms already?'

The inspector nodded. 'I've been over Manderson's and his wife's.
Nothing to be got there, I think. His room is very simple and bare,
no signs of any sort--that I could see. Seems to have insisted on the
simple life, does Manderson. Never employed a valet. The room's almost
like a cell, except for the clothes and shoes. You'll find it all
exactly as I found it; and they tell me that's exactly as Manderson left
it, at we don't know what o'clock yesterday morning. Opens into Mrs.
Manderson's bedroom--not much of the cell about that, I can tell you.
I should say the lady was as fond of pretty things as most. But she
cleared out of it on the morning of the discovery--told the maid she
could never sleep in a room opening into her murdered husband's room.
Very natural feeling in a woman, Mr. Trent. She's camping out, so to
say, in one of the spare bedrooms now.'

'Come, my friend,' Trent was saying to himself, as he made a few notes
in his little book. 'Have you got your eye on Mrs. Manderson? Or haven't
you? I know that colourless tone of the inspectorial voice. I wish I had
seen her. Either you've got something against her and you don't want me
to get hold of it; or else you've made up your mind she's innocent, but
have no objection to my wasting my time over her. Well, it's all in the
game; which begins to look extremely interesting as we go on.' To Mr.
Murch he said aloud: 'Well, I'll draw the bedroom later on. What about
this?'

'They call it the library,' said the inspector. 'Manderson used to do
his writing and that in here; passed most of the time he spent indoors
here. Since he and hi