At the mere mention of the subject a shiver went all over me. I tried to make him see that it was a topic for which I had no relish. I might as well have tried to put two heads upon his shoulders. "I have heard scarcely anything about it. I've been ill--very ill." "I heard that you'd been seedy. Got a bit fluffy on Monday, eh?" It is true that Mrs. Tennant was not in the room at the moment, but she might have been just outside the door; and, in any case, the insinuation was of an unwarrantable kind. "Got chucked from the Empire, eh? Went home Hackney way, without a hat. I know. Shouldn't be surprised if you have been a little queerish; you look puffy even now. I tell you what, Tennant, you ought to go in for training. I could get a couple of stone off you, and you'd be all the better for it. But about this murder. I'm not a bloodthirsty creature, as a rule, but I should like to have the fellow who did it all alone to myself for about five-and-twenty minutes." Keeley is one of the large army of muscular maniacs. He stands six feet three in his socks. He spends most of his spare time in a gymnasium, and the rest in what he calls "keeping himself fit." He could kill me with a single blow of his fist. Just then Lucy came in. "Sorry to hear that Tom's been seedy, Mrs. Tennant." "He's been in bed." "So I hear. And what do you think of the murder?" Lucy had brought some work in with her. Seating herself by the fire, she began busying herself with it. "Do you think it was a murder?" "I should think it was a murder. What else could it have been?" "The woman might have fallen out of the train by accident." "Accident? A lot of that!" I have told Lucy over and over again that, in the presence of ladies, Adolphus Keeley is sometimes brusque to the verge of rudeness. "Do you think that if there had been any accident about it, the fellow who was with her wouldn't have given the alarm? He knew better." I had been setting out the chessmen on the board, and turned to Keeley with a pawn in either hand. "Which hand will you have?" "Left." The white pawn was in the left hand. We sat down to play. Still he continued to prose. "Fred Courtney wanted to bet that they wouldn't have the fellow in a month. I should be almost inclined to take short odds that they'll have him within four-and-twenty hours." He had moved to king's pawn. I was about to give the usual reply, but when he said that my hand faltered on the piece. "Within four-and-twenty hours? What makes you think that?" Keeley winked. "I've heard something, that's all. It's your move." I moved.