his
old-world aspect with a quaint broad-brimmed hat.

He looked the most peaceable of elderly gentlemen as he took a baggy
umbrella from the stand, went out, closed the door after him, walked
slowly along by the area railings for a few steps, and then turned up
the steps to the Clareboroughs' door, passing into the hall so quickly
that it seemed as if the door was opened from the inside, though anyone
who had watched would have seen that there was a very quick, clever
application of a latch-key.

His movements now were slow, deliberate and silent. He laid down
umbrella and hat upon a table, and, apparently quite at home, went from
room to room on the ground floor before ascending to the drawing-rooms;
but finding no one, he went a floor higher and then descended to the
hall, where from the top of the stairs he stood listening to the
hammering going on below.

For some time he seemed undecided how to act, but at last he was in the
act of descending, when steps below made him retreat, and he stepped
back, listening, and hearing Roach go into the pantry. The next minute
the man began to ascend, and as actively as a cat, and with as silent a
step, the professor ran to the foot of the grand staircase and bounded
up to the drawing-room floor, ensconced himself behind a heavy curtain
which draped one of the doors, and made out that whoever it was reached
the hall and went into dining-room, library, study, lobby and
morning-room, before he went back to the stairs and descended once more
to the basement.

The professor was after him directly, and at the head of the stairs in
time to hear Roach come out of the pantry again, and the chink of a
glass against a bottle.

He descended the gloomy stairs by slow degrees, listening the while to
the work going on, and hearing the sound of tools, the whisperings, and
after a long period of waiting and another forced retreat when Roach
went again to the pantry to make sure the housekeeper was safe, he
finally stood thinking.

"Someone who knows the place well," he said to himself. "Quite at home.
Where can the old woman be? They can't have killed her."

He raised one hand quickly to his breast, as the thought sent a thrill
through him, and taking advantage of a busy time when tools clinked and
voices whispering were heard, he stole right down, stepped cautiously
along the passage, and then darted into the first open doorway, for
there was an impatient utterance from somewhere