He dropped on his hands and knees and peered among the laurels. “Yes, I believe I can see some other bits farther in. I’ll investigate, if you’ll keep an eye open to see that nobody is coming.” And he crawled laboriously into the little shrubbery. A few moments later he returned by the same route. In his hands were several more pieces of the vase. “It’s all in there,” he announced triumphantly. “Right back by the wall. You see what must have happened?” “The fellow threw it in there,” said Alec wisely. “Exactly. I expect he put the pieces in his pocket when he collected them, in order to chuck them away somewhere as soon as he got clear. Methodical sort of bird, isn’t he?” “Yes,” Alec agreed, looking at Roger with some surprise. “You seem quite excited about it.” “I am!” Roger said emphatically. “Why? It’s what we expected, isn’t it? More or less. I mean, if the vase was broken and the pieces disappeared, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption that he threw them away somewhere, isn’t it?” Roger’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, perfectly. But the point is _where_ he threw them. Doesn’t it occur to you, Alec, that this place is not on the route between the lattice window and the quickest way out of the grounds? In other words, the drive. Also, doesn’t it occur to you that if he wanted to throw them where nobody would be likely to find them, the best place to do it would be that thick undergrowth on either side of the drive—especially as he would be passing along it on his way out? Don’t those points seem rather significant to you?” “Well, perhaps it is a little curious, now you come to mention it.” “A little curious!” Roger repeated disgustedly. “My dear chap, it’s one of the most significant things we’ve struck yet. What’s the inference? I don’t say it’s correct, by the way. But what _is_ the inference?” Alec pondered. “That he was in a deuce of a hurry?” “That he was in a deuce of a fiddlestick! He’d have gone on straight down the drive if that is all. No! The inference to my way of thinking is that he never was going down the drive at all.” “Oh? Where was he going, then?” “Back into the house again! Alec, it’s beginning to look as if that Mysterious Stranger of ours may be going the same way as Mr. John Prince.” Chapter XVIII What the Settee Had to Tell Alec stared incredulously. “Back into the _house_? But—but what on earth would he want to be going back into the house for?” “Ah, now you’re asking me something. I haven’t the least idea. I don’t even know that he was going back into the house. All I say is that that is the only inference I can draw from the fact of these pieces of vase being where they are. It’s possibly quite wrong.” “But look here, if he wanted to go into the house again, why on earth should he have taken the trouble to climb out of the window like that? Why didn’t he just go out of the library door?”