CHAPTER III.
THE GATHERING CLOUDS Thus, it befell that Grant was not worried by officialdom until long after his housekeeper and her daughter had recovered from the shock of learning that they were, in a sense, connected at first hand with a ghastly and sensational crime.
Like Bates and their employer, neither Mrs.Bates nor Minnie had heard or seen anything overnight which suggested that a woman was being foully done to death in the grounds attached to the house.

As it happened, Minnie's bedroom, as well as that occupied by her parents, overlooked the lawn and river.

Grant's room lay in a gable which commanded, the entrance.

He had chosen it purposely because it faced the rising sun.

The other members of the household, therefore, though in bed, had quite as good an opportunity as he, working in the dining-room beneath, of having their attention drawn to sounds disturbing the peace of the night in a quiet and secluded spot.