rles had a malformed right hand; his left hand was his only
serviceable one. The blow that killed Mr. Glenthorpe struck me at the
time as a left-handed blow. The natural direction of a right-handed
blow, with the body in such a position, would be from right to left--not
from left to right. But, after considering this point carefully, I came
to the conclusion that the blow might have been struck by a right-handed
man. I was wrong."

"I do not think you have much cause to blame yourself," said the chief
constable. "You were right in your original conception of the crime, and
right in your later reconstruction in every particular except----"

"Except that I picked the wrong man," said Colwyn, with a slightly
bitter laugh. "My consolation is that Benson's confession brought the
truth to light, as I expected it would."

"It took you to see the truth," said Galloway. "I should never have
picked it. I suppose there has never been a case like it."

"There is nothing new--not even in the annals of crime," returned
Colwyn. "But this was certainly a baffling and unusual case. The
murderer was such a deep and subtle scoundrel that I feel a respect for
his intelligence, perverted though it was. His master stroke was the
disposal of the body. That shielded him from suspicion as completely as
an alibi. I put aside my first suspicion of him largely because I
realised that it was impossible for a man with a deformed arm to carry
away the body. Such a sardonic situation as a murderer persuading
another man that he was likely to be suspected of the murder unless he
removed the body was one that never occurred to me. That, at all events,
is something new in my experience."

"It is a wonder that Charles, with his deformed arm, was able to go down
the pit and conceal the money," said the chief constable.

"He did not go down very far. It is not a difficult matter to climb down
the creepers inside with the support of one hand, and he was able to use
the other sufficiently to thrust the small peg into the soft earth. He
first hid the money in the breakwater wall, being too careful and clever
to hide it in the pit until after the inquest. When he had concealed it
in the pit he revived the story of the White Lady of the Shrieking Pit
so as to keep the credulous villagers away from the spot. He need not
have taken that precaution, because the hiding place was an excellent
one, and it was only by chance that I discovered the money when I
des