ew about old Simon's typewriter, I
didn't mind telling that I knew, d'ye see? But there's another little
matter that I'd like to tell you about--between ourselves, and to go no
further, you understand?"

"Just so," agreed Brent.

"Well," continued Hawthwaite, "there may be nothing in it. But I've
always had a suspicion that there was nothing definite got out of either
Dr. Wellesley or Mrs. Saumarez about their--well, I won't say love
affairs, but relations. Anyway, that there was something mysterious
about the sort of three-cornered relations between her and Wellesley and
your cousin I'm as dead certain as that I see you! I've an idea too that
somehow or other those relations have something to do with your cousin's
murder. But now, this is it--you know, I dare say, that at the back of
Mrs. Saumarez's garden at the Abbey House, there's a quiet, narrow lane,
little used?"

"I know it," replied Brent. "Farthing Lane."

"Just so, and why so called none of our local antiquaries know," said
Hawthwaite. "Well, not so many nights ago I had some business in that
lane, at a late hour--I was watching for somebody, as a matter of fact,
though it came to nothing. I was in a secret place, just as it was
getting nicely dark. Now then, who should come along that lane but
Krevin Crood!"

"Krevin Crood!" exclaimed Brent. "Ay?"

"Krevin Crood," repeated Hawthwaite. "And thinks I to myself, 'What may
you be doing here, my lad, at this hour of the night?' For as you know
that lane, Mr. Brent, you'll know that on one side of it there's nothing
but the long wall of Mrs. Saumarez's garden and grounds, and on the
other a belt of trees that shuts off Robinson's market-garden and
orchards. I was safe hidden amongst those trees. Well, Krevin came
along--I recognized him well enough. He sort of loitered about,
evidently waiting for somebody. And just as the parish church clock
struck ten I heard the click of a latch, and the door in Mrs. Saumarez's
back garden opened, and a woman came out! I knew her too."

"Not Mrs. Saumarez?" suggested Brent.

"No," replied Hawthwaite. "Not Mrs. Saumarez. But that companion of
hers, Mrs. Elstrick. Tall, thin, very reserved woman; you may have
noticed that she goes about the town very quietly--never talks to
anybody."

"I've scarcely noticed her except when she was here in court with Mrs.
Saumarez," replied Brent. "But I know the woman you mean. So it was
she?"

"Just so--Mrs. Elstrick," said Hawthwa