e him up. Sir Henry asked me to go along.
So that's how Lady Monteith happened to see the three of us crowded into
the seat of the big roadster."

The girl went on in her deliberate, even voice

"Sir Henry was boiling full of the mystery. He got us all excited by the
time we arrived at Benton Court. I think Mr. Meadows was as keen about
the thing as Sir Henry. They were both immensely worked up. It was an
amazing thing!"

"You see, Benton Court is a little house of the Georgian period. It
has been closed up for ages, and now, all at once, the most mysterious
things began to happen in it.

"A local inspector, a very reliable man named Millson, passing that way
on his bicycle, saw a man lying on the doorstep. He also saw some one
running away. It was early in the morning, just before daybreak.

"Millson saw only the man's back, but he could distinguish the color
of his clothes. He was wearing a blue coat and reddish-brown trousers.
Millson said he could hardly make out the blue coat in the darkness, but
he could distinctly see the reddish brown color of the man's trousers.
He was very positive about this. Mr. Meadows and Sir Henry pressed him
pretty hard, but he was firm about it. He could make out that the
coat was blue, and he could see very distinctly that the trousers were
reddish-brown.

"But the extraordinary thing came a little later. Millson hurried to a
telephone to get Scotland Yard, then he returned to Benton Court; but
when he got back the dead man had disappeared.

"He insists that he was not away beyond five minutes, but within that
time the dead man had vanished. Millson could find no trace of him.
That's the mystery that sent us tearing up there with Mr. Meadows and
Sir Henry transformed into eager sleuths.

"We found the approaches to the house under a patrol from Scotland Yard.
But nobody had gone in. The inspector was waiting for Sir Henry."

The old man stood like an image, and the aged woman sat in her chair
like a figure in basalt.

But the girl ran on with a sort of eager unconcern: "Sir Henry and Mr.
Meadows took the whole thing in charge. The door had been broken open.
They examined the marks about the fractures very carefully; then they
went inside. There were some naked footprints. They were small, as of a
little, cramped foot, and they seemed to be tracked in blood on the hard
oak floor. There was a wax candle partly burned on the table. And that's
all there was.

"There were some