"Pooh, pooh," broke in the little doctor good-humouredly, "what is the use of doing things by halves? We three want to help an innocent man, so it is just as well we should understand one another." "You are Mr. Herries' friend?" asked Kind, cautiously. "I'm sure he is," said Elspeth fervently. "Well then," Kind rolled his hat round and round in his large hands. "'Spose we get to business. If you mean well by the cove as is under suspicion, take me up to see the corpse's bedroom." "Why?" asked Browne, somewhat startled by this blunt request. "I want to have a look at the room, before the peelers disarrange things. If the cove in the fur-coat killed Sir Simon, he might have left some evidence behind him, which the police overlooked. Now," added Kind, measuring Browne with a keen glance, "you've seen the corpse, I've heard, and can get into that room again, by saying as you want to do some doctor's work with me to assist. Once let me get in, and I'll look round." Browne made a cup of his hand for his chin, and pondered. "I can do it," he said at last in a brisk manner, "but will we not go and see your wife first?" "Not just now, Rachel's asleep." "Alone?" "In course," said Kind stolidly, "only me and she lives in the cart." "I'll go and see after her, while you search the bedroom," said Elspeth about to leave the room. "But your missus, my gal?" "She's in bed, and won't know. Pope will attend to the customers, and I'm too useful to him to be betrayed to his mother." This plan was agreed upon, and Elspeth with a shawl over her head slipped out of the inn, with a hasty excuse to Pope. Browne sought out the constable left in charge, who had the key of the death-chamber and madetapta his request. The man,--Fairburn it was,--knowing that Browne was in the confidence of his Inspector, as he thought, made no objection, and readily accompanied the two to the room. But he allowed them to enter alone, and thought that he was doing his duty by yawning at the door, looking up and down the dark passage in a listless manner. Kind carried the sole candle which the officer allowed to be taken into the room. The corpse lay quiet and rigid under the sheet, and the feeble candle light made the room look quite funereal. To keep up appearances, as Fairburn was casting occasional glances from the doorway, Browne turned back the sheet and examined the corpse, telling Kind to bring water, and towels, and various other things, so as to give him a chance of moving unsuspected round the chamber. In this way, Sweetlips, by using the keen eyesight with which Nature had endowed him, to say nothing of his clever brain, saw a great deal.