-"

The second knock cut him short, and I answered it without more ado. The
night constable on the beat, who knew me well by sight, was standing on
the doorstep like a man, his right hand on his hip till he had blinded
me with his lantern. A grunt of relief assured me of his recognition,
while his timely arrival was as promptly explained by an insensate
volley in a more familiar voice.

"Don't raise the road, Mr. Coysh!" I implored. "The man you want has
been here all the time, and dead for the last five days!"

That was a heavy night for me. If Coysh could have made it something
worse, I think just at first he would; for he had been grossly deceived,
and I had unwittingly promoted the deception. But his good sense and
heart had brought him to reason before I accompanied the policeman to
the station, leaving the other two on guard over a house as hermetically
sealed as Delavoye and I had found it.

At the police station I was stiffly examined by the superintendent; but
the explanations that I now felt justified in giving, at Delavoye's
instigation, were received without demur and I was permitted to depart
in outward peace. Inwardly I was not so comfortable, for Delavoye had
not confined his hints to an excuse for entry, made the more convincing
by the evil record of the asbestos stove. We had done some more
whispering while the constable was locking up, and the impulsive Coysh
had lent himself to our final counsels. The upshot was that I said
nothing about my own farewell to Royle, though I dwelt upon my genuine
belief that he had actually gone abroad. And I did say I was convinced
that the whole affair had been an accident, due to the same loose
gas-stove tap which had caused an escape six weeks before.

That was my only actual lie, and on later consideration I began to
wonder whether even it was not the truth. This was in Delavoye's
sanctum, on the first-floor-back at No. 7, and after midnight; for I had
returned to find him in the clutches of excited neighbours, and had
waited about till they all deserted him to witness the immediate removal
of the remains.

"What is there, after all," I asked, "to show that it really was a
suicide? He might have come back for something he'd forgotten, and
kicked against the tap by accident, as somebody did in June. Why make a
point of doing the deed at home?"

"Because he didn't want his wife to know."

"But she was bound to know."

"Sooner or later, of course; but the la