sional
group brought the accomplice down here to divide the booty. He broke the
door in. They sat down here at this table with the lighted candle as you
see it. And while the stuff was being sorted out, another of the band
slipped in behind the man and killed him.

"'They started to carry the body out. Millson chanced by. They got in a
funk and rushed the thing. Of course they had a motor down the road,
and equally of course it was no trick to whisk the body out of the
neighborhood.'

"Sir Henry got half up on his feet with his energy in the solution of
the thing. He thrust his spread-out fingers down on the table like a
man, by that gesture, pressing in an inevitable, conclusive summing up."

The girl paused. "It was splendid, I thought. I applauded like an
entranced pit!

"But Mr. Meadows didn't say a word. He took up the big glass we had used
about the inspection of the place, and passed it over the prints Sir
Henry was unconsciously making in the dust on the polished surface of
the table. Then he put the glass down and looked the excited baronet
calmly in the face.

"'There,' cried Sir Henry, 'the thing's no mystery.'

"For the first time Mr. Meadows opened his mouth. 'It's the profoundest
mystery I ever heard of,' he said.

"Sir Henry was astonished. He sat down and looked across the table at
the man. He wasn't able to speak for a moment, then he got it out: 'Why
exactly do you say that?'

"Mr. Meadows put his elbows on the table. He twiddled the big reading
glass in his fingers. His face got firm and decided.

"'To begin with,' he said, 'the door to this house was never broken by
a professional cracksman. It's the work of a bungling amateur. A
professional never undertakes to break a door at the lock. Naturally
that's the firmest place about a door. The implement he intends to use
as a lever on the door he puts in at the top or bottom. By that means
he has half of the door as a lever against the resistance of the lock.
Besides, a professional of any criminal group is a skilled workman. He
doesn't waste effort. He doesn't fracture a door around the lock. This
door's all mangled, splintered and broken around the lock.'"

"He stopped and looked about the room, and out through the window at the
Scotland Yard patrol. The features of his face were contracted with
the problem. One could imagine one saw the man's mind laboring at the
mystery. 'And that's not all,' he said. 'Your man Millson is not telling
the