Joan, as she stood in the yard, noticed first that, if the outer door were open, and the yard itself empty, as at this moment, there was nothing to prevent any one from walking straight through into the garden; for, as she knew, the gate leading to the garden, though it was shut, was never locked save at night. The big front gates of the yard stood open most of the day; and, in any case, the small gate beside them was not locked until the whole place was shut up for the night. A man wishing to get into the garden would only have to watch until the yard itself was empty, and he would then have every chance of getting through without being observed. In the chauffeur’s apartments above the garage, only one window looked down on the yard, and this, as Joan knew, was a tiny spare room, seldom occupied. Even if Woodman had come in by this way, there was only a very slender chance that he had been noticed. The chauffeur came into the yard from the garage, and Joan entered into talk with him. Usually, he locked up, when no one had the car out in the evening, at half-past nine or ten. On this occasion, Lucas’s car had been in the garage during dinner, and he had kept the place open after Lucas went in case any one might want a car out. He had locked the whole place up at eleven o’clock, and had then gone straight to bed. Had any one, Joan asked, entered by the yard entrance before he locked up? He had seen no one; but he had not been in the yard all the time. He went away to ask his wife, and came back to assure Joan that, although she had been in the yard part of the time, she, too, had seen no one pass that way. There was no one else, was there, Joan asked, about that night? No one. But then the chauffeur seemed to be plunged into thought. “Yes, miss, there was some one else. Miss Parker—Norah, what used to be the cook, miss—she came in to help with the dinner, and she stayed the night with us. She went to bed early, she did—about half-past ten. She had to leave early next morning—she went away before they found out what had happened in the night.” “Was she sleeping in the little room up there?” “Yes, miss, and when I looked up at eleven o’clock, she was sitting at the window there. She said she couldn’t sleep, and was trying to read herself off.” “Then she might have seen any one come in?” “Yes, miss, she might.” “Do you know where she is now?” “She’s with my wife this very moment, miss. She’s in a job now, away in Essex. That’s where she went when she left that morning. But it’s her day off, miss, and she’s come up to see us.” Joan asked to speak to the woman, and was soon in the parlour with her and the chauffeur’s wife.