There he appeared to suffer a check. There was a light in the room on the ground floor under her boudoir. The Colonel had waited quite a while; then he had walked round the Castle and into it by the library window. William, greatly surprised by the Colonel's audacity, had taken up his position in a clump of tall rhododendrons, opposite the library window, from which he could keep watch on it. "What time would this be?" said Mr. Flexen. "It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes past ten, sir," said William Roper. "And what happened then?" said Mr. Flexen. "Nothing 'appened for a good ten minutes. Then James Hutchings, the butler, come across the gardens from the south gate, as if 'e'd come from the village, and 'e went in through the libery winder--the same winder." Mr. Flexen had thought it not unlikely that Hutchings had entered the Castle by that entrance. He was pleased to have his guess corroborated. "That would be about half-past ten," he said. "Could you see into the library at all?" "Only a very little way, sir." "You couldn't see whether Colonel Grey and then James Hutchings went straight through it into the hall, or whether either of them went into the smoking-room?" "No; I couldn't see so far in as that, though there was a light burning in the libery," said William Roper. That was a new fact. Any one passing through the library would be able to see the open knife lying in the big inkstand. "Go on," said Mr. Flexen. "What happened next?" "Nothing 'appened for a long while--twenty minutes, I should think--and then there come a woman round the right-'and corner of the Castle wall and along it and into the libery winder. At first I thought it was Mrs. Carruthers, or one of the maids--she were too tall for her ladyship--but it warn't." "Are you quite sure?" said Mr. Flexen. "Quite, sir. I should have known 'er if she had been. Besides, she was all muffled up like. You couldn't see 'er face." "Did she hesitate before going through the library window?" said Mr. Flexen. "Not as I noticed. She seemed to go straight in." "As if she were used to going into the Castle that way?" said Mr. Flexen. William Roper scratched his head. Then he said cautiously: "She seemed to know that way in all right, sir." "And how was she dressed?" said Mr. Flexen. "She wasn't in black. It wasn't as dull as black, but it was dullish. It might have been grey and again it might not. It might have been blue or brown. You see, there was a fair moon, sir, but it was be'ind the Castle, an' I never seed 'er in the full moonlight, as you may say, seeing as, coming and going, she come along the wall and went round the right 'and corner of it, in the shadder." "And which of these three people came away first?" said Mr. Flexen. "She did. She wasn't in the Castle more nor twenty minutes--if that." "Did she seem to be in a hurry when she came out? Did she run, or walk quickly?"