Morford and the limousine had
long ago preceded them--with the low-dropped sun behind them and
lengthening shadows streaming on before. "Well, as a matter of fact, I
never did know him until I actually touched him. I was certain of the
method, of course; but the man--no. I got my first suspicion of 'Uncle
Phil' when I heard him speak. I knew I had heard that voice somewhere,
and I realised that it was much too young a voice for a man who
appeared--and must be, if he were the real 'Uncle Phil'--extremely old;
but it was only when I saw his hand, and the peculiar knotted and
twisted little finger that I really knew who he was. What's that? The
soap? Well, of course I knew that if, as I suspected, someone in the
house was the real culprit, an attempt would be made to make it look as
though the criminal entered from without, so naturally the window would
be opened, and something of some sort would be smeared on the
sill--something that wouldn't blow away and wouldn't wash off in the
event of a sudden rainstorm coming up. Soap would do--and soap is always
handy in a bedroom. I knew whose hand had made the smear as soon as I
looked at the cake of soap in 'Uncle Phil's' room--it was badly rubbed
on one side where it had been scraped over the stone coping and along
the outer edge of the sill where--Pardon me: this is the turning--I
leave you here. Pick me up at the inn of the Three Desires in an hour's
time, please, and we'll motor back to town together. So long!"

And swung round into the branching lane and down the green slope, and
round under the shadow of Lyntonhurst Old Church to the quiet country
road and the lich-gate where Ailsa Lorne was waiting.

CHAPTER XXXV

She was sitting in the very same place she had occupied when first he
saw her this morning, with the cypress tree and the roof making shadows
above and about her; and now, as then, she rose when she heard the latch
click and came toward him with hands outstretched and eyes aglow and
little gusts of colour sweeping in rose waves over throat and cheeks.

"Oh, to think that you have solved it! To think that it is the end! And
to think that it was he--that dear, kind 'uncle' of whom they all were
so fond!" she said. "I could scarcely believe it when Captain Morford
brought the news. It made me quite faint for the moment--it was so
unexpected, so horrible!"

"And after all, there was nothing to fear from that farm labourer who
frightened you so this mor