“And now, Mr. Millin,” said Mr. Ponders, “I will be frank with you. My brother has told me about your connection with Sir Roger Wallington, the difficult position in which you were placed, and your explanation. The latter, I understand, takes the form of a rather remarkable story which my brother believed implicitly. In some way, I take it, it explains the mystery of Sir Roger’s death?” “In some way, I suppose it does, sir,” replied Mr. Millin, “but it is so unlikely a tale that I wouldn’t have had the courage to tell it to anyone but Sir Leonard. But he’s always been so good to me that I dared to tell it to him. You can imagine my relief, sir, when he believed it. I quite understand that you, sir, wouldn’t dream of taking me into your service unless you believed it too, and thought it freed me from all suspicion concerning Sir Roger’s death.” “That is so,” said Mr. Ponders. “Let me hear it.” “Well, sir, after Mr. Roper’s death I was out of a position, and seeing Sir Roger’s advertisement in the _Morning Post_ I answered it, and received a request from Sir Roger to go down to see him. “Sir Roger was a remarkable-looking gentleman, sir--very tall and strong, with very hard blue eyes, and a contemptuous, nervous, fighting look about him; yet somehow I took a fancy to him. “‘Well, Millin,’ he said, ‘so you think you’d like to be my butler. Five strong men have thought that in the last eighteen months, and then--they have decided otherwise. The fellow who’s here now, for example, Mr. Peters, well--_he’s_ decided otherwise. He spent some time in America, Millin. The United States have much to be said for them, but they’re not good for British butlers. Have you been abroad?’ “‘Only for one day, sir,’ I said, ‘from Brighton to Boulogne and back.’ “‘I shan’t hold that up against you. I rather like the look of you--you look _soothing_. I want someone soothing. Would you like to try it?’ “I said I would, sir (for one thing, the wages Sir Roger offered were much above the average). “‘Very well,’ he said, ‘come next Wednesday and stay as long as you can stick it.’ “I had some dinner with the servants before leaving, and what I heard made me realise I was taking something on. Apparently Sir Roger had always been famous for his tempers; during the War he had been wounded in the head, and still had a good deal of pain, and his rages had become very hot indeed, sir. “‘Well, old man, I wish you luck,’ said Peters, ‘take out some All-Risk insurance, and when you see his chin go kind of down and back and his mouth open, and his left hand begin to twitch, and his eyes begin to spit blood, you’ll know you were the wise guy, isn’t that so, Mary?’ (Mary was one of the housemaids, sir, with whom, I found, this Peters had been too free.) “‘How often does he get that way?’ I asked.