hort.

"Did your experience never show you a case where a man, himself a
criminal, invented proofs and clues for the purpose of putting the
police upon the wrong track?"

He too started from his chair, forgetting to set down his glass of
whisky. "Good heavens, sir, you don't mean to accuse----"

"I don't accuse. I am not yet in a position to do that. I only suggest,
and should be myself a criminal if I did not try to throw such light
upon the matter as I can. Sit down again, inspector, and let me tell you
what I know, and what I suspect."

He sat, or rather dropped into his lately-deserted chair, and his
horrified expression, his drooping attitude, went far towards showing me
what an exalted position Carson Wildred occupied in the esteem of the
neighbourhood.

"I can't seem to realise it, Mr. Stanton," ejaculated the inspector.
"Such a man as Mr. Wildred! So respected, so charitable, has given so
much to the church! Why, you must be making a mistake."

"You shall judge for yourself whether I have any evidence to offer worth
building upon," I returned. And then I told him everything, beginning
with my chance meeting with Harvey Farnham at the theatre on Christmas
Eve. His face grew graver and graver as I went on, and when at last
(having dwelt with due insistence upon the mysterious proceedings
attending my call at the House by the Lock) I mentioned the reappearance
of the ring on "a young lady's finger," he shook his head regretfully.

"You've made out a fairly good case against Mr. Wildred, sir," he
observed. "Would it be indiscreet to ask whether you've any
_personal_ enmity against the gentleman?"

"I don't like him," I admitted. And then I went on to describe in a few
words my haunting impression of having been disagreeably associated with
him in the past.

"I would wish," I added hurriedly, "to keep the name of the lady now in
possession of the ring entirely out of the question if possible. It must
only be brought in, inspector, at the last extremity should no other
means remain of detecting a murderer. As for the ring itself, to save
trouble in that direction, I think I could if necessary engage to get
hold of it, and I am quite ready at any time to swear to its identity
with the one worn by my old friend Farnham."

The inspector thoughtfully scratched his head. "It'll be a nasty
business to examine Mr. Wildred's house, in case your friend Mr. Farnham
should prove to be all right over in the States. Bu