was the one I'd noticed in our laundry, and so
I went to see Mr. Hawthwaite. Mr. Hawthwaite's known what I had to tell
you for a good while now."

Stedman was taken aback. But he put a definite question.

"On your oath, did you see that handkerchief in Mr. Krevin Crood's
possession that night he was at Mr. Mallett's?" he asked.

"I've already told him I never did," retorted Louisa Speck, pointing at
Meeking. "I didn't see him with it. But I'm very certain he got it!"

Stedman waved the witness away, and Meeking proceeded to put in the
depositions taken before the Coroner in regard to the finding of the
fragment of handkerchief and its ownership, and called evidence to show
that the piece just produced was that which had been picked up from the
hearth in the Mayor's Parlour on the evening of the murder, soon after
the finding of the dead man, and to prove that it had remained in the
custody of the police ever since. The fragment went the round of the
bench of magistrates, and Tansley whispered to Brent that if Meeking
could prove that Krevin Crood had taken that handkerchief out of
Mallett's drawer, and had thrown it away on the following evening in the
Mayor's Parlour, Krevin's neck was in danger.

"But there's a link missing yet," he murmured. "How did Krevin get at
Wallingford? They've got to prove that! However, Meeking's evidently
well primed and knows what he's after. What's coming next?"

What came next was the glancing of the barrister's eye towards a
venerable, grey-bearded man who sat in the front row of spectators,
leaning on a gold-headed cane. He rose as Meeking looked at him, and
came slowly forward--a curious figure in those sombre surroundings.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CONNECTING WALL

From a certain amount of whispering and nodding that went on around him,
Brent gathered that this ancient gentleman was not unknown to many of
those present. But Tansley was turning to him, ready as always with
information.

"That's old Dr. Pellery," he whispered. "Old Dr. Septimus Pellery.
Tremendous big pot on antiquarianism, archaeology, and that sort of
stuff. Used to live here in Hathelsborough, years ago, when I was a
youngster. I should have thought he was dead, long since! Wonder where
they unearthed him, and what he's here for? No end of a swell, in his
own line anyway."

Meeking seemed determined to impress on the court the character and
extent of Dr. Pellery's qualifications as an expert in archa