"No doubt. But in the meantime they would make themselves scarce. Jaggard has been insensible or raving for over a week, major. The scoundrels counted on that!" "I say again that I believe in Jaggard's honesty, and I do not agree with you," said Jen, putting on his hat, "and after all, I do not see how you deduce this drugging theory!" "Oh, as to that, I was once a bit of a chemist," explained Arkel; "and when you took me to see Jaggard I smelt a curious perfume which seemed to be hanging about him. As a servant is not likely to use perfumes, I thought it curious." "What kind of a perfume?" "I can't exactly describe it. A rich, heavy, deadly sort of thing, likely, I should think, to dull the sharpest senses." "Did Etwald notice it?" asked Jen, thoughtfully. "Yes; but he professes his inability to explain it. He thinks the man was stunned and not drugged. I think, on the grounds I have explained, that he was first drugged and then stunned." "H'm; it's queer! I'll have to think it over. But when the body was taken out of the window, Arkel?" "The thieves carried it across the lawn!" "Then down through the bushes to that winding lane, I suppose?" said Jen. "I know all that; but afterward?" "They put it into a cart and took it away." "How do you know that?" asked the major, all on the alert. "Why," said Arkel, fingering his fat chin, "it was raining, as you may remember on that night." "Not until after the body had been stolen," returned Jen, mindful that Isabella had come into the library dry-shod. "How do you know that?" asked the inspector sharply. Jen was rather taken aback by the quickness of this query, and saw that if he wished to preserve the secret of Isabella, upon which depended her reputation, it behooved him to be careful. "Well," said he cautiously, "I looked out at the night when the hour was twelve, and--" "It might have rained between that time and three," said Arkel, with swift interruption; "and I believe it did rain, for you see, major, we found the mark of wheels in the lane, which would not have been left had not a considerable amount of rain fallen." "Did you follow the trail?" asked the major, waiving the question of rain or no rain. Arkel made a gesture of disappointment. "To the high road only," said he; "and there the wheel marks became mixed up with those of other vehicles. Lord knows where they took the body to, for once on the high road they had the wide, wide world to choose from. It's the devil's own mystery," he said, biting his finger. "I never met the like of it before, and am fairly puzzled. Why should these wretches steal the mortal remains of a murdered man?" "True," said Jen; "and why should these wretches have murdered that man?" Arkel looked up sharply. "As to that," he said, "we are by no means certain that they are the same." "I don't follow you."