quick walk, and so got out of the place.

"That the nerve tension had been considerable, I realized, when I had
locked the door behind me. I felt no inclination now to think of old Sir
Alfred as a hypochondriac because he had taken such hyperseeming
precautions regarding the Chapel. I had a sudden wonder as to whether he
might not have some knowledge of a long prior tragedy in which the
dagger had been concerned.

"I returned to my room, washed, shaved and dressed, after which I read
awhile. Then I went downstairs and got the acting butler to give me some
sandwiches and a cup of coffee.

"Half an hour later I was heading for Burtontree, as hard as I could
walk; for a sudden idea had come to me, which I was anxious to test. I
reached the town a little before eight thirty, and found the local
photographer with his shutters still up. I did not wait, but knocked
until he appeared with his coat off, evidently in the act of dealing with
his breakfast. In a few words I made clear that I wanted the use of his
dark room immediately, and this he at once placed at my disposal.

"I had brought with me the slide which contained the plate that I had
used with the flashlight, and as soon as I was ready I set to work to
develop. Yet, it was not the plate which I had exposed, that I first put
into the solution, but the second plate, which had been ready in the
camera during all the time of my waiting in the darkness. You see, the
lens had been uncapped all that while, so that the whole chancel had
been, as it were, under observation.

"You all know something of my experiments in 'Lightless Photography,'