“By all means, Mr. Ellery. There is work for me here. But I shall have to call on you both later in the day. Could I meet you—say at Liskeard House—about six o’clock?” “Oh, if that’s the attitude you take, I suppose we’d better have it out now.” “That will be best, I think.” Then Superintendent Wilson turned to the inspector, who had not recovered from his amazement at the miraculous appearance of his superior. The superintendent pointed to Woodman’s body. “Call in your men and have that thing removed. Then we can say what we have to say.” So, when the body had been taken away, Joan and Ellery found themselves face to face with Superintendent Wilson. “I will tell you what I know,” he said, “and then I think you will see the wisdom of letting me hear your story. But first there is one thing I must do.” Going to Woodman’s desk, he took from his pocket-book the scraps of paper which he had found, and rapidly compared them with other specimens of Woodman’s handwriting. “Just as I thought,” he said, “and now I am ready.” “Fire away, then,” said Ellery. “Well, it was clear enough to me, from an early stage in the case—even before you confirmed my view with your very convincing _alibi_, that Mr. Walter Brooklyn was not the murderer. That was the assumption on which I set to work.” “May I ask why?” said Joan. “Of course, I knew he hadn’t done it; but what made you——?” “A quite proper question, Miss Cowper. What made me take that view was a very strong conviction that the clues—the second set of clues, I mean—pointed far too directly to Mr. Brooklyn. They looked as if they had been deliberately laid. I ought to have seen that at once; but I was put off by the other set of clues—the obviously false ones—that the police were meant to see through from the first. It took me a little time to realise that the murderer had been clever enough to lay two separate sets of false clues—one meant to be seen through, and one meant to mislead.” “Yes, we got to that, too, though we didn’t put it quite as you do.” “Quite so. Well, as soon as I reached that conclusion, it became clear that the murderer had strong reasons for removing, not only your two cousins, but also your stepfather. My next step, therefore, was to discover who would be most likely to inherit Sir Vernon Brooklyn’s money if Mr. Walter Brooklyn was safely out of the way.” “So that brought you to Carter Woodman at once?” “In a sense, yes. But of course at that stage I had no sort of proof. I set out to prove what was only a theory.” “Yes, that was what we did. Tell us what you found out,” said Ellery, half-rising from his chair in his excitement. “You remember that Mr. Walter Brooklyn’s stick was found in Mr. Prinsep’s room. Well, I succeeded in proving that Mr. Brooklyn had left that stick in Carter Woodman’s office on the day of the murders.” “Lord, we never thought of that,” said Ellery.