a glimmer of light. I was in a terrible fright, but as I
stood there in the dark, listening intently, the sound of the wind
roaring round the house reminded me how the candle had flickered in the
wind while I was in the room before, and I concluded that it must have
blown out the light. So I went into the room, feeling my way along the
walls with my hands. When I got near the bed I struck a match and looked
for the candlestick. But it was gone.

"Then I knew somebody had been in the room, and I made my way downstairs
again as fast as I could, and told Charles, and asked him what he
thought of it. Charles said it was clear that the murderer, whoever he
was, had revisited the room since I had been there, and finding the
candle, had carried it off with him. I asked Charles for what purpose?
Charles turned it over in his mind for a moment, and then said that it
seemed to him that he might have done it to secure himself, in case he
was caught, by being able to prove that somebody else had been in Mr.
Glenthorpe's room that night.

"I saw the force of that and was greatly alarmed, and asked Charles what
he thought I had better do. Charles, after thinking it over for a while,
said in my own interests I would be well advised if I carried the body
away and concealed it somewhere where it was not likely to be found. He
pointed out that if the facts came to light it would be very awkward for
me. On my own admission I had gone into Mr. Glenthorpe's room in the
middle of the night, and had come away leaving him dead in bed, with his
blood on my hands, and my bedroom candlestick alight at his bedside.
Charles pointed out that these facts were sure to come to light if the
body was left where it was, but if the body was removed and safely
hidden, it might be thought that Mr. Glenthorpe had simply disappeared.

"I was struck by the force of these arguments, and we next discussed
where the body should be hidden. We both thought of the pit, but I
didn't like that idea at first because I thought the police would be
sure to search the pit when they learnt of Mr. Glenthorpe's
disappearance, because his excavations were near the pit. Charles, on
the other hand, thought it was the safest place--much safer than the
sea, which was sure to cast up the body. He said it would never occur to
the police to search the pit, until the body had lain there so long that
it would be impossible to say how he came by his death. Perhaps it would
never be se