Whose hands could have done it?
Not those of Coombs, surely, for he could not have passed me and attained the house while I was in the garden unseen.

Nor Sally, for she possessed no strength to more than drag the dead man to some near-by covert.

With the possibility of this in mind I searched the vacant rooms of that floor, closets and all, thoroughly, but to no result.

There was, therefore, but one conclusion possible--unknown parties were involved.

We were not alone in the house in spite of its apparent desertion.
I paused in doubt before Mrs.Bernard's door, convinced this was the truth.