"These gentlemen want to know, Mrs.Grant, if the bed has been touched." "Not by me, ma'am." "Then," said Miss Trelawny, turning to Sergeant Daw, "it cannot have been touched by any one.

Either Mrs.Grant or I myself was here all the time, and I do not think any of the servants who came when I gave the alarm were near the bed at all.

You see, Father lay here just under the great safe, and every one crowded round him.

We sent them all away in a very short time." Daw, with a motion of his hand, asked us all to stay at the other side of the room whilst with a magnifying-glass he examined the bed, taking care as he moved each fold of the bed-clothes to replace it in exact position.

Then he examined with his magnifying-glass the floor beside it, taking especial pains where the blood had trickled over the side of the bed, which was of heavy red wood handsomely carved.