“Then I thought over the burglary, and it seemed to me that the burglars must have got inside help, and if so, there again Susan was the girl. Of course there was the tying up, but that would be the natural way to work a blind. I noticed that the cook’s wrists were swollen, but Susan’s weren’t marked at all, so I questioned the cook, and I got a bit of information out of her that pretty well proved the thing. She said she heard the burglars ring and heard Susan go to the door. But she said it was three or four minutes before Susan screamed. Now if Susan’s story was true she would have screamed far sooner than that, for, according to her, the men had only asked could they write a letter when they seized her. So that again looked like Susan. You follow me, sir?” Again French nodded, while Cheyne broke in: “You never told me anything of that.” Speedwell smiled once more his crafty smile. “Well, no, Mr. Cheyne, I didn’t mention it certainly. It was only a theory, you understand. I thought I’d wait till I was sure. “Well, gentlemen, there it was. Someone wanted some paper that Mr. Cheyne had—it was almost certainly a paper, as they searched his pocketbook—and Susan was involved. I hung about Warren Lodge, and all the time I was watching Susan. I found she wrote frequent letters and always posted them herself: so that was suspicious too. Then one day when she was out I slipped up to her room and searched around. I found a writing case in her box of much too good a kind for a servant, and a blotting-paper pad with a lot of ink marks. When I put the pad before a mirror I made out an address written several times: ‘Mr. J. Dangle, Laurel Lodge, Hopefield Avenue, Hendon.’ So that was that.” Speedwell paused and glanced at his auditors in turn, but neither replying, he resumed: “I generally try to make a friend when I’m on a case: they’re useful if you want some special information. So I chummed up with the housemaid at Mrs. Hazelton’s—friends of Mr. Cheyne’s—live quite close by. I told this girl I was on the burglary job, and that there would be big money in it if the thieves were caught, and that if she helped me she should get her share. I told her I had my suspicions of Susan, said I was going to London, and asked her would she watch Susan and keep me advised of how things went on. She said yes, and I gave her a couple of pounds on account, just to keep her eager, while I came back to town to look after Dangle.”