"Well," said the man, "if you mean, pardner, that everything looks too tidy, and as if things had been straightened up all but the table-kiver, that's just what I was a-thinking." "Right," said the sergeant; "that was the one thing forgotten or left in the hurry." "Oh, no," said Guest quickly. "I see we have raised a false alarm." "Maybe, sir," said the sergeant firmly, "but I'm not satisfied yet. Let's go back in the other room, please. I want to know what that table-cover means. Hallo! What's this?" he said sharply, as he stooped down and picked up a piece of composition candle, gnawed nearly all away. "Where's the candlestick?" "Here," said Guest, pointing to where a little old-fashioned candlestick lay by a stand containing folios of dried plants. "Well, sir, that was knocked down," said the sergeant. "We are wasting time," said Stratton firmly. "See if that lock is uninjured, my man, so that the door will close." "Stop a bit, sir, please," said the sergeant; "we haven't done yet." He stepped at once to the panelled door on the left of the fireplace, turned the handle, threw it open, and made his light play in the long, deep, narrow closet, one side of which was filled from floor to ceiling by a rack laden with books of pressed plants. "Looks as if it had once been a passage," said the sergeant, "oak panels right over the ceiling. Well, nobody there," he continued, as he backed out and closed the door. "That will do," said Stratton, speaking more firmly now. "My friend and I made a mistake. We are much obliged for all you have done, and--" "Not quite done, sir," said the sergeant grimly; and he crossed to the other side of the fireplace, took hold of the handle of the closed-up door, left to make both sides match, and tried to turn it, but it was fast. Stratton turned ghastly, but he was in the shade. "No cupboard there," said Guest sharply. The sergeant turned quickly, and his light flashed across the faces of the two friends. He saw Stratton's wild look, and he tapped on the panel. "No cupboard, sir? Sounds hollow, too." Guest caught sight of his friend's face at the same moment, and his pulses leaped; a confused mist of memories flooded his brain, and something made him keep silence, though, had he been asked, he could not have explained why. "I should say there is a cupboard here," continued the sergeant, turning back to examine it. "Fastened up, but been a cupboard like the other, of course." Guest glanced at Stratton again in the gloom, but he could see nothing now, with the light averted, only hear his heavy breathing, which was faintly stertorous, as if from exertion. "Let me see, gentlemen, you live in the next chambers?" Stratton was silent, while Guest met the officer's eye, and involuntarily answered: "Yes." "Do they back on to there?" "Yes; part of the old suite," said Guest, answering, as it were, against his will.