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Show H CHAPTER VI. (Continued) Sergeant Crisp. a LREADY, though it was still Hj early, the Summer-house Hj and its vicinity were under Hj police supervision. Constables had Hj been gathered from the market town and from two other villages. One had been posted at Che angle where the short bypath to the Summor-house itself joined the main shrubbery path, one was in Hj tho station on that path near the house and another at the village end. The precaution was very rea-sonablo rea-sonablo and necessary, for by this. Hj time news of the tragedy, probably with fantastic exaggeration, was suro to be Hyinj about the neigh-borhood, neigh-borhood, and the village people and others would be flocking, with the morbid curiosity which is so very human, to see all that was to be seen, even-if it were only the very ordinary background and' scenery of the wretched drama. "This is Sergeant Crisp, miss, of the London detective force," said Larncombe, in his big, booming voice, by way of introduction. 1 said, "How d'you do?" .Sergeant Crisp said nothing, but bowed and stood with uncanny stillness of., body and probably,, had I been able 1 to perceive it, an uncanny activity of mind. The daylight made the scene if possible more dreadful than before. It revealed all the deathly pallor of the face, and hinted at the rlgld- ity of the muscles of the poor body stretched on the bare boards. The pearls on the neck and the rings on tho fingers looked terribly out of the picture. The stain on the left breast, which had seemed crim-son crim-son in the blend of light given by the moon and by the lantern in the night, had now, by day, and per-haps per-haps somewhat by its own real H change of color, taken on a dark brown look which made it more ' dreadful than ever. The fact that toward morning 11 Llvesay's bull's-eye must have ex- hausted its oil and that the light had gone out with a very sickening smell helped to give the last ele-ment ele-ment of misery and sordidness. j "What has been moved since you saw the body first?" the sergeant asked Larncombe. "Nothing, nothing whatever," Larncombe replied with loud con-fidence. con-fidence. "1 told Sir Ralph, as my L duty was" Hr Sergeant Crisp, in his gentle lit- tie voice, interrupted the con- ' - stable, without the slightest cere- mony, in the middle of his protes-tat protes-tat ion: ft "Do yon mean that Sir Ralph has been sitting here all night, and has not moved any of the chairs, or anything?" "Oh, as to the chairs, I don't know as I noticed" "No," tho sergeant said, intcr-rupting intcr-rupting the full current of speech just as before, "you didn't notice." Larncombe appeared to feel that H be was called upon to justify him- self in some degree. He began again to repeat that he had told Sir Ralph, as his duty was, that nothing should be touched. Sergeant Crisp did not seem as if he was aware that any one was speaking. He stood perfectly still. He had hardly crossed the door-way. door-way. I could sec, in spite of his stillness of body, that his pale eyes 1 were perpetually moving, looking to this side and to that, resting awhile on the body lying on the floor, again penetrating into each corner of tho small arbor, looking first at ono window and then at the other. Ho slightly lifted his head and the upturn of his gray eyes told me that ho was making a study of tho thatched roof. About the time that the energy of the constablo's booming had run itself Hj down into silence the gray eyes H came to meet mine, and they met them and held them with that ex-I ex-I traordlnarj' unwinking stcad'iness which I have mentioned before. ; Trbat would happen if two Scr- geant Crisps (it ho had a double) were to meet and look at each other I cannot think. I suppose they would go on looking till it H was dark or till something camo 'between them. I, at least, could not go on meeting tho gaze of those apparently quite uninterested , cold gray eyes. I had to turn mine aside very soon. When I looked again tho eyes were still on mo, and this happened ' yet a third time. Just as I began to feel that I must call out or throw something at him if he con-j con-j tinned to fir me, he released mo by J looking away. I had an idea that lie must have extracted all from mo that I could possibly roveal to 1 him and that he had no need to ask j me any question. , In thiB respect it was an idea very far from the truth, hut It was correct so far, that by this study he had already appraised me and had made his mind up in regard to the questions that he might usefully use-fully put to me. So much as that he himself told me afterward, and it was a great deal for him to say. What ho did say after that first inspecting of me was not to me, but to Larncombe; nor was It in any way in anrwer to what the constable had been assorvating. "Go," he said, "and find Mr. Live-say Live-say and bring him here." It struck me that thero was a singular absence of any such garnishing gar-nishing phrases as "please" or as "ask air. Livesay if he will kindly," etc. This very quiet little man spoke like the centurion of Scrip-turo Scrip-turo and with equal confidence that his command would be obeyed. I imagine that the sending for air. Livesay achieved two ends at once that for which it was most obviously designed, and also our temporary freedom- from Larncombe Larn-combe and his pomposity. I was rathecXafraid that when we were alone the little man might address me in his military. Roman fashion, but he was, on the contrary, quite as courteous as his expressionless manner permitted. "Will you answer me a few questions, ques-tions, miss?" he asked, and, of ' course?-I said that 1 would tell all that I pBssibiy -could. He began by asking me ho.'ui7 attention had first been called to the tragedy, and I told him iq. substance, sub-stance, what I have already -nrltfen down about the violent peal at the bell and Llvesay's call up to my uncle at the window. I hesitated a moment then, doubtful whether I should' say anything any-thing about having seen uncle go out earlier. I de- cided immediately in my own mind that I would say , . nothing about itl .? Undo Ralph must ."'"'' surely have some excellent reason, , which he would tell ' - Jf me all in good time, .' 1 for denying that he WW. had b'een out. It gj was not for mo to x&J'i know better. . That is rather Fl how I argned it Jlp ,f out to myself, and $&?'Vi$fr' I am suro that the vS argument did not take more than the 4g& i'P' oighth of a second, A. but I am equally certain that the lit- cM tie man was aware ' of that eighth of a . . second's hesitation r' fc ' and registered It on ; his own mental y.--record. I did tell him, however, ah out Grainger's being fully dressed, and he asked me a very funny question upon that: "Did you notico whether his tie was tied the same as it was at dinner?" Of course I had not noticed, and of course I told him so, but the very idea that it was possible for him to ask that question, possible for him to think it a possibility that I might have, taken note of such a thing, gave me a momentary and almost terrifying Insight into the power and habit of observation of tho man himself. For a full minute after this he did not ask me anothor question, nd from his silence I guessed that this figure of Grainger In full dress appeared to him significant, and that he was trying to think out what its significance sig-nificance could be. Then he put yet another question, moro or less to the same point: "Did you notice, no-tice, Miss Carlton, whether tho butler's shoe3 looked as if ho had been out?" Again I had to shake my head. I bogan to feel like a child under examination for general intelligence, intelli-gence, and like a child who was acquitting itself badly and getting bad marks. "You thought It funny," ho observed ob-served then, "when I asked you whether Mr. Grainger's tie was juBt as it was when he waited at dinner." (How had he known I thought it funny I had not told him so?) "I will ask you a question ques-tion now that f think you will be ablo to answer: Is Lady Carlton now" ho pointed to the tody on the floor "dressed as "she "was when you last saw her?'' I was on surer ground here, as he had foreseen. "Yes," I said, "she is." "And that would be at what hour that you last saw her alive?" "About half-past seven." "And at that time she went to her Toom?" "Yes." "You and Sir Ralph, your ancle, dined alone?" "Yes." "Lady Carlton was unwell? Did you think it was sorious?" "Oh, no," I said, "nothing serious just a headache or something." "Had she said that she did not intend to come down again all the evening?" "Yes," I said, "she did." "Did you understand that she was going to bed?" "Oh," I replied, "as to that, I dou't know. I thought she would lie down and rest, most likely." "And if she were going to do that, sho would most likely take off some of her clothes, she would change a dress, out on a tea-gown Is it not so?" "That would be most natural," I admitted. same oress again, would that, do you think, have disarranged dis-arranged her ladyship's hair? Would sho be likely to do it again, If she desired to go out, oven for a short walk in the moonlight?" "It she really lay down at length on her bed, with her head on the pillow, or on the sofa with 'her head on the cushion, it probably would need a little rearrangement; but that would not mean doing it all over again." "And now then, Miss Cr.rlton, I will ask you this: Do you think, so far as you are able to tell, that nor ladyship had so disarranged her hair do you think it had been done up again Judging by the way it looks now and by tho way It looked when you last saw her?'' "Is It possible that her ladyship's trouble the reason why sho retired re-tired and did not care to dine downstairs was of the mind rather than of tho body? There are times when we are wearied and upset and one would be alone, to straighten out the thoughts and to rest tho nerves." The llttlo man was becoming quite eloquent. "It may have been something like that," I said. It was rather dreadful, having to make the inspection which ho suggested sug-gested of the coiffure of this poor cold" clay and compare it with what I remembered of Aunt Enid in her Tivid and lovely health. V. ' : ' ' ' "''So Jar as I can judge' I said "of course,4tis not possible to bo certain hcrhalr has not been done again. It is much as it was when I saw it last" "So that we arrive at tho probability," prob-ability," he commented, "that the poor lady did not lie down, and wo may suppose, too, that she was not very gravely indisposed." I was Interested and a little flattered flat-tered at his thinking me worthy of being admitted to his reasoning processes. It Is quite likely that It was his Intention to please me and thus ongase my help, for his next question touched more delicate deli-cate ground, and he certainly guessed that I might bo reluctant to answor it quite freely: Then he exploded at me, without with-out notice, the question to which all this had no doubt been leading' up. "Of course Sir Jtalph and her ladyship were always on perfectly affectionate terms?" I should have been disppsed to say that even before this, and during dur-ing the whole of the interrogating, the little man had been observing mo with the utmost possible closeness, close-ness, but as he put this important question the piercing quality of his eye seemed suddenly to be Intensified Intensi-fied many degrees. It may have been only my fancy that suggested this to me, or It maj be that he really did stare a little more intently. in-tently. Please remember, too, that my nerve had been strained by all that I liad gone through and was still enduring. However It was, I felt that I could bear It no longer. I jumped up from my chair and said: "Sergeant Crisp, I told you that I wquid answer you any questions you liked, and I am perfectly willing will-ing to do so, but I am not going to I cannot sit there any longer and have your eye boring into tho back of my brain like a gimlet. If wo are to go on with this game of question and answer it must bo with a screen set up between us," Of course I spoke out of the urgency of my vexed nerves and without making any calculation beforehand of how the detective would take what I said, but Its effect on him was quite extraordinary. extraor-dinary. It resulted in quite a transformation. trans-formation. From this almost diabolically dia-bolically perfect and bloodless piece of mechanism for wringing truth out of the most secret places, he be?amo of a sudden the most absolutely soft and human little being be-ing Imaginable. "Ah," he said, in a yolco of genuine gen-uine grief, "I am so pained. There is uo Improvement no Improvement. Improve-ment. Again and rfgaiii I have promised myself that I would remember re-member there were other things, human things," hearts and feelings, imtaSin'" ll ' will you pleusc 'i' " tell me, miss, am - j ; I correct? It is n & matter of which I hTr "a dyh I p "Then from the suodued light in the summer-house, from that search-should search-should have put Jng inquisition and from the dread presence of that dead lain down to rest, figure on the floor, I went out into the golden and then should sunshine, 3o dazed and blinded that SrStTThS . ' . I could hardly sec my way." besides the finding out who did this murder or that burglary. It is my weakness, miss, my besetting sin, that when I get on the track, hunting, as you may say, I lose myself. my-self. I lose all my humanity. Miss Carlton, it is a disgusting profession profes-sion mine. I loathe It." His whole face hadchanged marvellously and had become, from a thing of wood, r uito full of expression. "Oh, no," I said, "you don't really." It was wonderful how differently dif-ferently I felt toward him and toward the whole situation now, after that curious outbreak ol his. I had felt afraid of him, and now I felt nothing but pity and almost a kind of affection. I felt that It was ' my role to comfort him and encourage en-courage him. "You don't really loathe your profession," I said. "You are doing a very good work, bringing tho criminals to justice. You are r&ally serving society all the while." "Well," he said with a sigh, "let us put it llko that. At all events it is my profession now, and I have a wife and children to support by it, so I must make the best of 11 as it is. And now we must get back to professional work again Miss Carlton. I apologlzo to you for troubling you with - my per sonal fallings, and I apologize, too for so offensively fixing you witb my cold gray eyc llko tho Ancionl Mariner, eh?" "Well, then," I said, "to hark back to the last question that you asked me it Is no uso tryins to pretend that theirs was exactly an ideal marriage Uncle Ralph's and Aunt Enid's; but they got on, I should think, as well as tho majority major-ity of married couples." ' 'You don't look on that as setting set-ting tho standard .very high," ho suggested. "Now," ho went on, glancing at the one shoe which projected pro-jected beyond the skirt of the poor body on tho floor, "would you say that those were her ladyship's housw.'shoes, or are they those that sho would ordinarily put on when she wrts going out?" "Those are not indoor shoes," I could answor with decision. "Then we come to tho conclusion that it was no sudden impulse Of her ladyship's on which she went out last night. Jt must liavo been deliberate." , "It looks so," I agreed. "And yet she came out without ;, hat or cloak. It would seem that ' we should Infer that her ladyship had no intention of being long out of doors." Ho had become quite loquacious and- confidential for the moment, and took me stop by step with hini in his inferences. "Vary strange,'" he said, "very strauge--one would almost think" but what y. was that one would almost think I was not to learn at that point at all events for he checked himself there. "Well," ho said, Instead of finishing his sentence, sen-tence, "it does not do to form theories till facts thrust them right at you. That Is one of the lessons, and ono of the hardest, that we have to learn in our profession." "I am sure," I said, "I am under no temptation to form a theory. I have tried hard enough, but it seems to me absolutely impossible to fomi any theory about it all. It is hardly to be believed that Heas-den Heas-den can have done it. What could his motive be? Nothing has been taken." "Very strange, very strange," he said asaln. half tn himself, and half 'to-me. "I must see this Heasden. Extraordinarily fine looking young k fellow, is he not? So, at least, the constable tells me." ' "Oh. yes," I said, "but surely you cannot think" "Ob, no, my dear young lady," he interrupted. "At this stage of a case I never do think not in that way. But. still" The good looks of this Jim Heasden. Heas-den. bad boy oJLthe village, poacher and In all respects ne'er-do-well, were quite out of the common. His gipsy mother had brought him eyes like sloes, curly black hair, florid coloring and very fine features and figure. He was an extraordinarily good-looking specimen of the human hu-man being of his type. Aunt Enid, I know, had met him caught him would rather be the word for it trespassing almost certainly poaching in the shrubbery shrub-bery its.elf. But, still be was a fellow utterly illiterate, a yokel! I had no lofty idea(of Aunt Enid's intellect, in-tellect, nor, it may be, of her moralitybut. mor-alitybut. still! So we left it there, for the moment, mo-ment, the detective and L The Idea that he had half suggested seemed the more dreadful to contemplate con-template with that poor victim's body lying before us. Of course I ought to have known that he would not have been so expansive ex-pansive to me. would not have, played his cards so openly, unless it were to provoke or to Invite a like response from me. Nevertheless Neverthe-less bills loquacity was not alto-gethor'actlug. alto-gethor'actlug. He really was making mak-ing an effort not to let his profession profes-sion become ho absorbing to him as to stiflo all human feeling out of his heart and to render him a mere mechanism for tho detection of crime. Tho fear haunted him with almost al-most a morbid anxiety. But ho iuiuw, ue iiuu uu JusiuiCL, uiaL ill one point In ray answers I had paused, and ho hoped, by talking an " thus encouraging me to talk, to Induce me to fill that gap which ho know to ho open. Ho wanted to know what should be put thore. He began to grow "warm," as we say In the game, with his very next questions: "You dined alone with Sir Ralph that night?" "Yes," I said. "And was Sir Ralph in his usual spirits?" "IIo was rather silent nothing very remarkable. He was often silent." "And you sat together after dinner?" din-ner?" "Hardly, at all. He went almost directly to the library and I sat for a little in the drawing-room." "And you did not see him again that night?" There it had come the question ques-tion I bad been afraid of. How was I to answor? Perhaps I had better have told tho truth. Perhaps Per-haps I had better have lied right out I do not know. What I did ' was to lie It amountod to that in a roundabout fashion Inferential. "I saw uncle again when Livesay jH called us. Wo met in the hall, while Grainger was fumbling at tho door." "But you did not see him he-fore?" he-fore?" It seemed to mo that tho little man was growing wooden, mechanical again, and his eyes, which he had of kindness turned -elsewhere, were boring into tho secret places of my brain once more. However, I had been toler- jH ably prepared for all these ques-tlons, ques-tlons, and I believe that I Imposed upon him when I said, with a groat air of candor: 0 "Well, to be exact, I did see him before see his head at least, for when I looked out of the window to see who was ringing tho bell I H saw uncle's head below mc, out of his own window.'' Thus wo passed that perilous corner, and I felt my heart beating quickly In the reaction from my j i anxiety about It. I flattered my- ,j self that I had fenced with tho j . little man well and '.oiled him with- Vn out telling an actual lie. r'4 Ho went on thon to elicit from ' r mo other episodes of tho night in h which I had taken a personal "3 share, and I told him of my going to Aunt Enid's room to inform her I of uncle's being called out I little dreaming thon why it was that Livesay had called hini. I told the X sergeant, too, about Celeste, my jj j ; aunt's maid, and all the rest just i- t a3 I have written it already. I had .jj no reserve from him, except in that : j one particular of my having seen ; ' uncle go out before his going In ' answer 'to Llvesay's summons. So, when we had brought all up ? J to the point at which Sergeant ; Crisp had been introduced to me k by the village constable, he said: ? "Now that is finished, Miss Carlton, Carl-ton, and I thank you very much for 'answering my questions sofully ! and so frankly" my conscience ' j smote me a little at that praise. "I am going" to ask you now to M leave me here alone for a llttlo ! j? while. I want to look around and H make a thorough examination of jf EE ... m ivi tms aroor pernaps taKe a pnoto- . sl w graph or two and then I shall bo b able to relieve you and Sir Ralph of some of tho strain you have i suffered. There will be no reason m after that why tbo body should not E bo carried to the house and prop- r crly cared for." f I could be thankful from my ' heart for that. The prolonged watch had been a terrible strain and trial. The only thing that puz- . j zled me was his request to ho alone to have a look round the very small space. Had he not been looking, with those gimletty eyes of his, all the while, for a long, a very long half hour and more? I said as much to him. and ho smiled that ' , t queer little ghost of a smile which Just, and no more, curled one cor- fl ner of his mouth, as he answered: I "You do not know, miss, what looking around and examining means to us whohavo to look carefully, care-fully, who havo to leave nothing f unlooked at, oven through this and that." He brought first a largo magnifying glass and then .a smaller triple ler.se out of sonio pockets whero it seemed Iinpos- I slblo that they could have found room to lie beneath his creaseless coat. "But," I asked, "what is there" that you can possibly expect to find?" I felt it was a foolish question even before he had made tho really very obvious answer: "Ah, 1 if only we knew that, then thero wouldn't bo so very much need to look." j Then from tho subdued light In tho Summer-house, from that searching Inquisition and from the dread presence of that dead flguro on the floor, I vent out Into ths golden sunshine, so dazed and I blinded that I could hardly see my 1 way. M CHAPTER VII. What the Gamekeeper Had to Tell, T LEARNED something of Ser-& Ser-& geant Crisp's doings in the A Summer-house, after I had left him, from what Livesay, tho keep- 0 cr. told me. Crisp had sent Larn- ""B 'combo to look for Livesay whllo ho was talking to me, and when he two arrived the detective was at work in his examination. They , stood for a while by the door. which the sergeant had left open in order to admit as much fight as possible. jH Larncombe had announced ".Mr, Livesay. sir," as he brought tho keeper to the Summor-housc, ''but that thero Sergeant Crisp," as Livesay told me, "he didn't tako no moro notico of us, miss, than if wo'd been a brace of beetles. I really could hardly say whether he fl knew as wo wro thore or not, thougu Joo Larncombe he called it out loud enough. 'Tis my belief as he really didn't know, In a man-, (Continued 6n Uext Page) . I 3f fascinating Defective Story Ik. .cHprqee Qttckmsim ' 1 l - . L K, . . f ,6t '(Continued from Preceding Proe) ncr of saying, as we word thoro at alf, though in another mannor oC caying oi course he must have knowod, bocaue thoro we wero, and ho must have socn us, and likewise ho must havo heard us. But as for taking notlcfo of us " there!" Livosay, although a man to .whom words came easily, preferred ' to leave to my Imagination, .to wholly Inadequate did he find Inn-i Inn-i Mj guage to describe the absolute do toebment of the detective from all I the clrcumstancen which did not I immediately Interest him when his I attention was focussod on a pur- I 'tlciilnr task. And he did wisely I to leave it bo, for T had socn I enough of that dotachmont and I .concentration to bo able to form a I much bettor idea of it than hi3 words were likoly to suggest. Live- B say did, however, fill in some of I the details of the picture for me. I Tho sorgoant, It appears, went I over the whole floor of the little I house, board by board, with his big magnifying glass. Now and then I ho picked up some small object, I too-minute for tho men at tho door I to bo able to distinguish what It I was, and subjected It to more t mlnulo Inspection through the I three-lonsed magnifier. lie brought JLj. from invisible pockets of that wm crcaselcss coat some envelopes, into which he put some of these objects. Each chair and tho table had to undergo a like microscopic examination. He left the body of my poor young aunt to the last, but when bo did comf to Us Inspection II the Investigation was even more meticulous. H On his way from tho station to I the house under the convoy of 1 & Larncombe, he had left a suitcase and a handbag at the White Hart in tho village, where he had on-gaged on-gaged a bedroom, and after his first glance at the Summer-house ho had instructed Larncombe to eond one of the other attondant constables to tho hotel, with or- ders to ask for the bag and to taring It to tho Summor-houso. m " , This errand had been executed and it " - tho bag had been placed just wlth- II, in tho door In course of my inter- fj rogation. " 'Ho opened tho dresB and made a particular examination of tho 6hape of the wound, sketching on one of his envelopes its exact out-lino out-lino nnd noting the extent and character of the bruised space around it. From his handbag he brought a camera, and, sotting the time arrangemont carefully so as to get a good result in the subdued light of the Summer-house, took photographs from different anglos of the body and its surrounding objects. When all that was done he looked up at Livesay. who had coughed several times, loudly but Tralnly, to attract his attention, and without any apology or preface on-I on-I lered upon his catechism: "Now tell me, what time was It that you " came into the- shrubbery last "Wyll, I came there about elevon "And went Into the Summer-"No, Summer-"No, certainly not," said Llvesay, with Indignation. "I did not go Into the Summer-house." "My mistake!" Sergeant Crisp replied, apologetically. "Whore did you go then?" "Why, naturally, the wind being east, what there was of it, and me "being looking out for this fellow and having a dog, I went west side, as any man what knowed his business busi-ness would. "IWt likely bjj I'd go to windward." "Oh," Crisp said. Innocently, "you were looking out for some one, were you?" "Of course I was. I was looking J out for Jim Heasdcn, of course." "Ah! But what made you think j-7" he was likely to bo there?" "What mado me think? Why, I'd scon him thero 'before twice I had, when I was going around, and what's more I'd seed ono or two rabbit wires as 1 reckoned to bo Tho llttlo man hesitated and thought .tor a while before he went on to his noxt question, and when he did speak he did not ask a question ques-tion at all. but scribbled a note and bade Larncombe take it to one of tho polico constables stationed at soma distance. Vhon Larncombo was well out ot hearing, and not till then, ho addressod himself again to the keeper with: "Now I tnuat ask your help here. I don't know very much about country things and game and so on al-, al-, ways been in towns, you see-but isn t eleven o'clock at night rather a late hour for a man to be going ' K ' ' cne rounds or his raDDit wires at this time of year?" "Now I call that a very sensible question, so I do," Livesay saijl, approvingly, as if it was much more to the point than anything he had at all expected from such a source. "It Is late for a man who Isn't on the regular professional lay as a poacher, which Jim Heas-den Heas-den is not, he being what you might rather call a casual. But then, you see, It so happens as I've seed him in the shrubbery about that hour on other nights, so as I know more or less what his habit is, so to call It." "Oh, you've caught him there before?" be-fore?" "Well, no, not exactly caught him, so to cay that Is, not caught him setting a wire nor yet lifting a rabbit out of a wire nor nothing. But I've seed him there. I've been suro of him sure as It was him but he's always had the best of me, so to say, always got away before be-fore I could catch him. And, besides," be-sides," confessod the keeper, regretfully, re-gretfully, "'tisn't as if to And him was the same to prove as he was doing anything wrong. You see. any one might be on the path here, if only he was going to the house from the vlllago on an errand or a message. 'Tisn't all so easy, being a gamekeeper." "I daresay not." the sergeant said sympathetically, "it's something some-thing the same as being a detective. detec-tive. Isn't it? But now, to come down to last night how was it that you began to think that Heas-don Heas-don was in the shrubbory? Did you see him or hear him?" "I said as I had my dog along with me, didn't I?" the keeper answered, an-swered, "and that boing so, and me and the dog to leoward, 'tisn't likely as tho first notico of Jim Heasden as I'd have had would be seeing him, or hearing him either." tnAmmean,at. your d0' smo"-him smo"-him flSt? d Sh' 70U notIce of Ji7h T?at 1 mean " llvesay said, "and that, of course, Is how J8?" ,The had been restless like, before I'd nover knowed him bo rcstlesE and once I "did "believe l myself as I heard a step crunch on the gravel, but i couldn't say for certain. More than once I was on the point of starting out to see whether it was auybody or not, but I couldn't make out, owing to the old dog's mannor. And then, all in a minute, he became different at once, growling and pulling at the chain I had on him I knew well enough thenas that meant as some stranger was between him and the wind." "Between the wind and his majesty?" maj-esty?" asked Crisp, incomprehensibly, incomprehen-sibly, to the keeper. "Yes, and what did you do?" "I went forward then, as quietly as might be, among the bushes, hanging on to the dog, till we came out to tho path, and then we goes along it, me "following the way tho dog was like to tug, till we come just there." The keeper broke off and pointed, point-ed, with some sense of the dra- inatlc, out along the llttlo path which led straight to the Summer-house. Summer-house. "Just whore the constable stands," Crisp suggested, glancing at tho policoman who was guarding that anglo of the path. "Just so,' Llvesay agreed. "And what then?" "Why, it was Just ag I come there that I saw him." "Meaning Jim Heasden?" "Of course," Llvesay answered, "And what was he doing?" "Ho was running." "Ah," said Crisp. "He had got a sight of you and was running away from you?" "Why, no," said Hvesay, m rather a puzzled way, "I shouldn't eay as ho oxactly was running away from me. Seomed moro to mo as if he was running right toward me." "Wasn't that rather5 curious, then?" Criap asked, his intent little lit-tle eyes watching unwinklngly every turn of the keeper's face. Livesay at this point took from his tail pocket a large red handkerchief, hand-kerchief, with which ho mopped his brow repeatedly during the remainder re-mainder of tbr 'nterview. It was not so much i..at the daj as that tho questioning, was close. Probably Prob-ably he had nQver before been called on to keep his attention so riveted on one particular scries of. events. "It was curious, very curious, come to think of it," he admitted, aftor a brow wiping. "But did it not strike you so at tho time, Mr. Llvesay?" Crisp asked. "Well, no." Livesay said. "I don't know how ft was. but 1 don't know as it did." Crisp coutlnucd his unwinking stare at him, 'but Tor a long while said nothing, so that the keeper resorted again to his handkerchief, which acted at once as a cleanser merely temporary of his face and a shield from the detective's oyes. "He was running from the Summer-house," 'Crisp at length suggested. sug-gested. "It was from the Summer-house, In a manner of saying," tho keeper admitted, with a modification. ""What's the sense of that in a manner of saying?" the detective a3ked sharply. "It's a manner of saying," Live-Bay Live-Bay explained, not too lucidly. ' "If you was to say to mo, 'George Llvosay, would you go Into court and swear no yo,uaoe -JlnT Heasden running from the Summer-house?' I would say to you as I would. But if you was to say to mo, 'George Llvesay, would you go Into court aud swear as you seed Jim Heasden Heas-den running out of tho Summer-house?' Summer-house?' I would say as I wouldn't, for the reason thr.t 1 never seed no such thing." Sergeant Crisp said "Hum!" like a man not too well satisfied, adding: add-ing: "Will you tell me, then, just where on this path it was that you first did see Jim Heasden?" Llvesay led him down the paph to a point about half-way between the Jittle house-Itself and tho angle at which stood - the constable on guard, and after some hesitation mado a slab with his stick on the sward on one side of tho path, saying: say-ing: "1, should say as it would bo-somewhere bo-somewhere Just about here." "And ho was running?" "Well, yes" with a slight hdl-Intion hdl-Intion "yes, I should say as he was running." "But what doubt could you havo about It?" "Well, I moan as he wasn't running run-ning very fast like, but ho was running run-ning yea, I should say as he was going faster thnn a walk." "And if he was running, how was ' it that ho didn't run into you that you didn't catch him?" "Because just as I saw him the dog made a spring, and, whether or not because of that, he caught sight of me, and no sooner had sight of mo than he was turned away In a flash just there's the place, botweon the bushes, as ho allpped through quick as light he was." -. "And you after him?" 4 "And' me after him, but It's a needle in a haystack, as the saying Is, among them bushes, and especially espe-cially In the dark, and especially me having a dog. I daren't let the dog go, fear he'd have mauled him and I should get into trouble, seeing see-ing as I'd nothing proved against him." "Running toward you," Sergeant Crisp said over again, as if to summon sum-mon up the vision clearly, "and just here! Now what, I wonder, was he running from?" "And so do I," said the keeper, heartily. "You saw no one that he was running from?" Llvesay shook his head. "No one," the sergeant continued, con-tinued, "In the shrubbery at all that night except him?" and again the keeper gave the negative shake. "So when you had' lost him in the 'bushes, what did you do?" "1 enmc out on tho path again, a little further down" pointing In the direction of the village "and then I came back along the path and went up to the Summer-house." "Yes. Was the door shut or open?" "The door was shut. There's no lock to It, as you may see. I Just turnod the handle and half opened It." "Yes?" said the detective, as the other paused. "And I saw It." I have not a doubt tbat the keon eyes wero more, than commonly piercing as Sergeant Crisp shot the next question at him: "What made you go and look In the Symmcr-house?" Symmcr-house?" "Well;" th$ keeper said, hesitating hesitat-ing a moment, "it was like this. I said to myself as may bo Jim Heas den might have doubled back on I me and -bo in hiding in the Sum- I mer-house. 'Twasn't much of a I chance, but it was worth taking; I and then again, you see, it seemed H tns if it was from the Summer- I house as he'd come running. So JH that mado me want to see." IH "You said just now that lijldn't H strike you at the time as curious H that he should have come running 1 H toward you." H "And I don't know exactly as It did." Llvesay replied, "but I was H kind of confused like, nnd wonder- H lug, and then, first moment as J H opened the Summer-house door, I II thought as he was there, after all." H "What made you think, that?" H Crisp asked. H "Because tho dog growled." H "Growled, did he? 1 supposo H that would be at the body." H "That's right at the body. He H wouldn't have growled If it had H been her ladyship that is, her H ladyship if she'd been alive. He IH knew her well enough. I suppos9 IH that," indicating the Summer-house H where the "body still lay, "was dlf- H ferent to him." ' "How did he come to know her ladyship so well?" jl "Every day, you see, I come to i the house for orders, and often an I ! not, one way or other, her lady- i 'l ship would meet us here or there !' on the place, and always she'd il have a word aud a pat on tho head for the dog. Wonderful fond Of him, she was, she and that French maid of hers. Always petting tho dog and giving him bits, thai Mam'selle Colesle is." 4 "So the dog growled. and thon?" "I saw something white on the floor, nnd at first I couldn't tell jH what It was, and then I sort of 1 'H knowed or . guessed that it was a Tl woman; and then I threw the lan- tern on and 1 saw." H "Yes you saw what?" H "Saw It was her ladyahlp and H yes, I don't mind saying, I was H afraid. There was that great patch H of blood on the left side there H and she was lying. She never H moved. The dog was afraid, too. H Ho was smelling at her and his H back bristling. He was drawing . H To Be Continued' Next Sunday. 'H Coprlcbt,. 1020. by Gcorjro II. Doran C. ,H |