"Yes," said the witness, "and one on Thursday night." "But that's impossible. He was dead then, according to the medical evidence." "That's what I cannot understand," said Eva, glancing at the Inspector. "I expected him on Thursday night at eight and had dinner ready for him. After waiting till after nine I was about to go to bed when a telegraph messenger arrived. He gave me the wire and said it arrived at four, and should have been sent then. It was from my father, saying he had postponed his departure till the next day, Friday. I thought it was all right and went to bed. About twelve I was awakened by the five knocks of my dream----" "What do you mean by your dream, Miss Strode?" Eva related her dream, which caused much excitement. "And the five knocks came. Four soft and one hard," she went on. "I sprang out of bed, and ran into the passage. Mrs. Merry met me with the news that my father had been brought home dead. Then I attended to the body, while Mrs. Merry told Jackson, who went to see Mr. Wasp." "What did you do with the wire?" asked the coroner, looking perplexed at this strange contradictory evidence, as he well might. "I gave it to Inspector Garrit." "Here it is," said the inspector producing it; "when I was in town, I went to the office whence this had been sent. It was the St. James's Street office where the other wire had been sent from. I learnt from a smart operator that the telegram had been brought in by a ragged, red-haired boy----" "Butsey," cried Mrs. Merry, folding her shawl tightly round her lean form. "Yes," said Garrit, nodding, "apparently it is the same boy who joined the three men when they carried the body home, and knocked five times." "And the same boy as told me a lie about Cain," cried Mrs. Merry; "what do you make of it all, gentlemen?" Mrs. Merry was rebuked, but the jury and coroner looked puzzled. They could make nothing of it. Inquiry showed that Butsey had vanished from the neighbourhood. Wasp deposed to having seen the lad. "Ragged and white-faced and red-haired he was," said Wasp, "with a wicked eye----" "Wicked eyes," corrected the coroner. "Eye," snapped Wasp respectfully, "he'd only one eye, but 'twas bright and wicked enough to be two. I asked him--on the Westhaven road--what he was doing there, as we didn't like vagrants. He said he'd come from London to Westhaven with a Sunday school treat. I gave him a talking to, and he ran away in the direction of Westhaven. Oh, sir," added Wasp, obviously annoyed, "if I'd only known about the knocking, and the lying to Mrs. Merry, and the telegram, I'd have taken him in charge." "Well, you couldn't help it, knowing no reason why the lad should be detained," said the coroner; "but search for him, Wasp." "At Westhaven? I will, sir. And I'll see about the Sunday school too. He'd be known to the teachers."