“In what way are you anxious, Doctor Allday?” The doctor smiled grimly. “You don’t trust me? Well, I have promised to set the example. Keep your mask on, sir--mine is off, come what may of it. But, observe: if you repeat what I am going to say--” Alban would hear no more. “Whatever you may say, Doctor Allday, is trusted to my honor. If you doubt my honor, be so good as to let go my arm--I am not walking your way.” The doctor’s hand tightened its grasp. “That little flourish of temper, my dear sir, is all I want to set me at my ease. I feel I have got hold of the right man. Now answer me this. Have you ever heard of a person named Miss Jethro?” Alban suddenly came to a standstill. “All right!” said the doctor. “I couldn’t have wished for a more satisfactory reply.” “Wait a minute,” Alban interposed. “I know Miss Jethro as a teacher at Miss Ladd’s school, who left her situation suddenly--and I know no more.” The doctor’s peculiar smile made its appearance again. “Speaking in the vulgar tone,” he said, “you seem to be in a hurry to wash your hands of Miss Jethro.” “I have no reason to feel any interest in her,” Alban replied. “Don’t be too sure of that, my friend. I have something to tell you which may alter your opinion. That ex-teacher at the school, sir, knows how the late Mr. Brown met his death, and how his daughter has been deceived about it.” Alban listened with surprise--and with some little doubt, which he thought it wise not to acknowledge. “The report of the inquest alludes to a ‘relative’ who claimed the body,” he said. “Was that ‘relative’ the person who deceived Miss Emily? And was the person her aunt?” “I must leave you to take your own view,” Doctor Allday replied. “A promise binds me not to repeat the information that I have received. Setting that aside, we have the same object in view--and we must take care not to get in each other’s way. Here is my house. Let us go in, and make a clean breast of it on both sides.” Established in the safe seclusion of his study, the doctor set the example of confession in these plain terms: “We only differ in opinion on one point,” he said. “We both think it likely (from our experience of the women) that the suspected murderer had an accomplice. I say the guilty person is Miss Jethro. You say--Mrs. Rook.” “When you have read my copy of the report,” Alban answered, “I think you will arrive at my conclusion. Mrs. Rook might have entered the outhouse in which the two men slept, at any time during the night, while her husband was asleep. The jury believed her when she declared that she never woke till the morning. I don’t.” “I am open to conviction, Mr. Morris. Now about the future. Do you mean to go on with your inquiries?”