At any rate, they knew who had committed the murder. Of that he was sure. Could they be shielding a third person? If so, who was that third person? CHAPTER XII Mr. Flexen sat pondering this question of a third person for a good twenty minutes. It could not be Hutchings. There would be no reason to shield Hutchings unless they had instigated or employed him to commit the murder, and that was out of the question. He was not sure, indeed, that Hutchings was not the murderer; the snores and the knife were as likely to have excited the murderous impulse in him as in them. He was quite sure that if Dr. Thornhill had been able to swear that the wound was not self-inflicted, he could have secured the conviction of Hutchings. But it was incredible that Lady Loudwater or Colonel Grey had employed him to commit the murder. No; if they were shielding a third person, it must be the mysterious, unknown woman who had come with such swift secrecy and so wholly disappeared. It grew clearer and clearer that there most probably lay that solution of the problem. If that woman herself had not murdered Lord Loudwater, as seemed most likely, she might very well give him the clue for which he was groping. He must find her, and, of course, sooner or later he would find her. But the sooner he found her, the sooner would the problem be solved and his work done. Till he found her he would not find its solution. It still seemed to him probable that somewhere among Lord Loudwater's papers there was information which would lead to her discovery, and he went into the library to confer again with Mr. Carrington on the matter. He found him discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's funeral with Mrs. Carruthers and Wilkins. When they had gone he said: "Did you come across any information about that mysterious woman in the rest of the papers?" "Not a word," said Mr. Carrington. "I've been thinking that you might come across traces of her in his pass-books--payments or an allowance." "I thought of that. But there's only one passbook, the one in use. Lord Loudwater doesn't seem to have kept them after they were filled. And Manley knows all about this one; he wrote out every cheque in it for Loudwater, and he is quite sure that there were no cheques of any size for a woman among them." "That's disappointing," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the cheques to 'Self'? Are there any large ones among them?" "No. They're all on the small side--distinctly on the small side--cheques for ten pounds--and very few of them." "It is queer that it should be so difficult to find any information about a woman who played such an important part in his life," said Mr. Flexen gloomily. "It's not so very uncommon," said the lawyer. "Well, let's hope that the advertisement she'll get from my newspaper friends will bring her to light," said Mr. Flexen. "It would be a pleasant surprise to me to find them serving some useful purpose," said Mr. Carrington grimly.