Crate bent forward, and on the dingy red tablecloth he saw a number of tiny black grains scattered about. "It is a powder of some sort," he said; "I told you that I thought the man had been poisoned." Even as Crate spoke the gaslight went out, leaving them in complete darkness. "Ah!" said Fanks, rather startled by the unexpected incident, "Mrs. Boazoph is fiddling with the meter." "What the deuce did she do that for?" asked Crate, as his superior struck a match. "Can't you guess? She saw these black grains on the tablecloth, and wants to get rid of them. That was why she left the room and turned off the gas. She hopes that the darkness will drive us out. Then she will explain the incident by a lie, and enter before us to relight the gas." "Well?" said Crate, stolidly. "Well!" repeated Fanks, crossly. "I shall never make you understand anything, Crate. Before lighting the gas she will pull off the tablecloth and scatter the grains." "Do you think she's in this, Mr. Fanks?" "I can't say--yet. But she knows something. You get a candle, and--hang this match," cried Fanks, "it has burnt my fingers." As he uttered the exclamation the match, still alight, dropped on the table among the black grains to which allusion has been made. There was a flicker, a sparkle of light, and when Fanks struck another match the grains had disappeared. "Gunpowder!" said the detective, in a puzzled tone; "now, what possible connection can gunpowder have with this matter?" To this there was no answer; and by the glimmer of the single match, the two men looked blankly at one another. CHAPTER II. A RECOGNITION. Topping this discovery came the return of Mrs. Boazoph with a candle and an apology. Her procedure was so exactly the same as that suggested by Fanks that Crate could not forbear from paying the tribute of an admiring chuckle to the perspicuity of his chief. Only in her action with the tablecloth did Mrs. Boazoph vary from the prescribed ritual. "My regrets and apologies, sir," she said, addressing Fanks, with a side glance at the table; "but one of the servants--an idle slut, whom I have now discharged--turned off the gas at the meter by accident. I hope that you were not alarmed by the sudden darkness. Permit me to relight the burners." And with this neat speech she mounted a chair with the activity of a girl. Having remedied the accident she stumbled--or seemed to stumble--in descending, and caught at the table to save herself, thereby dragging the cloth on to the floor. Then it was that Crate chuckled; whereupon Mrs. Boazoph was on her feet at once, with a look of startled suspicion. However, as she had accomplished her object, she recovered her equanimity speedily and made another apology, with a lie tacked on to it. "My regrets for the second accident," she remarked glibly, "but it is due to overstrung nerves. Put it down to that gentleman, if you please, and you will put it down to the right cause."