have kept back that you saw the body removed," he said
grimly.

"Are you a man or a wizard?" cried Penreath fiercely. "God! how did you
find that out?"

"By guess work, if you like," responded the other coolly. "Listen to me!
There has been too much concealment about this case already, so let us
have no more of it. It was because of what you saw afterwards that your
suspicions were doubly fastened on the girl, is that not so? I thought
as much," he continued, as the other nodded without speaking. "How long
after Peggy left the room was it before the body was removed?"

"Not very long," replied Penreath. "After she went out of the room I sat
on the bedside. I did not close the small door I had discovered, or
replace the wardrobe. I was too overwhelmed. In a little while--perhaps
ten minutes--I saw a light shine through the hole again. I went to it
and looked through--God knows why--and I saw somebody walking stealthily
into the room, carrying a candle. He went to the bedside and, with a
groan, lifted the body on to his shoulders, and carried it out of the
room. I crept to my door, and looked out and saw him descending the
stairs. God in heaven, what a horror, what a horror!

"I waited to see no more. I shut the door in the wall, pulled the
wardrobe back into its place and determined to leave the accursed inn as
soon as it was daylight. In my cell at nights, when I hear the footsteps
of the warder sounding along the corridor and dying away in the
distance, it reminds me of how I stood at the door that night, listening
to the sound of the footsteps stumbling down the staircase."

"You heard the footsteps distinctly, then?" said the detective.

"Distinctly and clearly. The staircase is a stone one, as you know."

"Did you put your boots out to be cleaned before you went to bed?"

"Yes."

"And were they there when you looked out of the door?"

"I do not remember. But I know they were there in the morning, dirty
and covered with clay. I took them in, and was about to put them on,
when the servant knocked at the door with a cup of morning tea. I
answered the door with the boots in my hand. She offered to clean them
for me, and was taking them away, but I called her back and said I would
not wait for them. I was too anxious to get away from the place."

"Do you remember when you lost the rubber heel of one of them?"

"It must have been when I was walking the previous day. They were only
put on the day before. I hap