midst stood a carpenter's bench, and the floor, the boards of which
had already been laid, was littered with shavings and tools. Under
the tarpaulin a great red stain soaked to the walls, where much
blood had flowed. It was still wet in places and upon it lay
shavings partially ensanguined. At the edge of the central stain
were smears and, among them, half the impress of a big, nail-studded
boot.

"Have the workmen been in here this morning?" asked Brendon, and
Inspector Halfyard answered that they had not.

"Two constables were here last night after one o'clock--the men I
sent from Princetown when Mrs. Pendean gave the alarm," he said.
"They looked round with an electric torch and found the blood. One
came back; the other stopped on the spot all night. I was out here
myself before the masons and carpenters came to work, and I forbade
them to touch anything till we'd made our examination. Mr. Pendean
was in the habit of doing a bit himself after hours."

"Can the men say if anything was done last night--in the way of
work on the bungalow?"

"No doubt they'd know."

Brendon sent for a mason and a carpenter; and while the latter
alleged that nothing had been added to the last work of himself and
his mate, the mason, pointing to a wall which was destined to
inclose the garden, declared that some heavy stones had been lifted
and mortared into place since he left on the previous evening at
five o 'clock.