“I will tell you everything I have discovered,” she answered; “it does not explain everything, I know, but it explains enough for you to be able to find out the rest. I have gone as far as I can alone,” she added simply, “and my only course now is to place it in your hands to use as you think fit.” Humblethorne was mollified; he had been afraid she was going to taunt him with failure. But with the end of her task a heaviness had fallen upon her; to investigate was interesting, to discover horrible. “Let us go into the drawing-room,” she said; “we cannot be overheard there, and here, as I know, we can be. Oh, I want you first to look at this. I don’t wonder it was overlooked; I only found it by accident,” and she took the two men to the dent under the cornice level with the third step of the stairs. “You never saw the cigarettes in their original positions, I think,” she said to Humblethorne, as he bent over to look at it with his interest roused instantly to the full. “No: did you?” he queried instantly. “No, but after I found this dent yesterday I asked Mr. Castle to tell me exactly where they had lain. It was obvious when I came to look again that they had fallen out when the cigarette box struck the wall here.” She spoke simply, intent on her explanation, and looked up in surprise when Humblethorne, seeing the full significance of her remark, gave a sudden exclamation and cried excitedly— “Struck the wall! When was that?” “Before Sir Roger was killed, obviously,” she answered. “How long before I do not know.” “But, but——” he began, trying to assimilate this new and startling fact. “It does rather upset one’s preconceived ideas, doesn’t it?” she said. “But I do not see how the conclusion is to be avoided. The box would hardly be thrown after Sir Roger lay dead.” “You have made a discovery of the very greatest importance, Miss Temple,” Humblethorne asserted. “I will not deny that, but this doesn’t clear John Penterton.” “I am aware of that,” she replied; the unconscious touch of condescension had not escaped her. “Perhaps it would help if you told me what evidence you have against him. I know he was here—Miss Penterton had arranged some while ago that he should come. Is that evidence that he is guilty of his father’s death?” While she was speaking the dining-room door opened, and Fairlie came quietly into the hall. “That remains to be seen,” returned Humblethorne. “He came secretly at night-time, and there are several questions to be answered. Did his father know of his coming? Was his father alive when he left? Who let him out? His father was killed that evening; if he didn’t kill him, who did? Answer me that, Miss Temple?”