"It was not printed in this room," he said; "this is black ink and the other purplish.

It was done by a thick pen, and these are fine.

No, it was done elsewhere, I should say.

Can you make anything of the inscription, Ames ?" "No, sir, nothing." "What do you think, Mr.Mac ?" "It gives me the impression of a secret society of some sort; the same with his badge upon the forearm." "That's my idea, too," said White Mason.
"Well, we can adopt it as a working hypothesis and then see how far our difficulties disappear.

An agent from such a society makes his way into the house, waits for Mr.Douglas, blows his head nearly off with this weapon, and escapes by wading the moat, after leaving a card beside the dead man, which will when mentioned in the papers, tell other members of the society that vengeance has been done.