pported himself by the back of a chair.

"Out with 'em, Jem," cried the sergeant excitedly, and, a large
screw-driver being produced from the tool bag, the screws were attacked,
and turned easily, the man rapidly withdrawing them and laying them one
by one on the mantel-shelf.

"They haven't been in very long," he muttered, raising one to his nose.
"Been rubbed in paraffin candle, I should say."

He began turning another, while the sergeant gave Guest the lantern to
hold while he went and picked up the piece of candle they had found at
first.

"Not all teeth marks, gentlemen," he said; "the candle was used to ease
those screws."

There was a pause then, for the man was at work on the last screw, and
as he turned, Guest arrived at the course he should pursue. Stratton
was ignoring the fact that the closet belonged to his room; he must, for
his own sake, do the same. He could not give evidence against his
friend; for there it was plain enough now, and if Stratton had been
guilty of Brettison's death, he was being bitterly punished for his
crime.

The last screw fell on the floor, and was picked up and placed with the
others. Then the man stood with his screw-driver in his hand.

"Prize it open?" he said. The sergeant nodded, and on forcing the edge
of the screw-driver in the crack between the inner half of the bar and
the jamb, it acted as a lever, and the door gave with a faint creak, but
as soon as it was a couple of inches open the man drew back.

"Your job now," he said.

The sergeant stepped forward; Stratton stood firm, as if carved in
stone, and Guest closed his eyes, feeling sick, and as if the room was
turning round, till a sharp ejaculation made him open his eyes again to
see that the sergeant had entered with his lantern, and was making it
play over the panels of the inner side of the farther door.

"That's the old door leading into the place, I suppose, sir?" he said.

"Yes."

Guest started again, the voice sounded so strange, but he was gaining
courage, for there was the familiar dark bathroom, viewed from the other
end, with the cigar box on the shelf close to the door in company with
the spirit-stand. Beneath the shelf there were three large four-gallon
tins, which were unfamiliar, and suggested petroleum or crystal oil;
there was a mackintosh hung on a peg, looking very suggestive; an
alpenstock in a corner, with a salmon and trout rod. Guest saw all this
at a glance, and his spirits r