announced, in what might almost be called a threatening letter,
his intention of visiting his brother that afternoon. There
would be evidence of his arrival, of his being shown into the
scene of the tragedy--a room in the Red House, commonly called
"the office"--and of his brother's entrance into that room. The
jury would have to form their own opinion as to what happened
there. But whatever happened, happened almost instantaneously.
Within two minutes of Mark Ablett's entrance, as would be shown in
the evidence, a shot was heard, and when--perhaps five minutes
later--the room was forced open, the dead body of Robert Ablett
was found stretched upon the floor. As regards Mark Ablett,
nobody had seen him from the moment of his going into the room,
but evidence would be called to show that he had enough money on
him at the time to take him to any other part of the country, and
that a man answering to his description had been observed on the
platform of Stanton station, apparently waiting to catch the 3.55
up train to London. As the jury would realize, such evidence of
identity was not always reliable. Missing men had a way of being
seen in a dozen different places at once. In any case, there was
no doubt that for the moment Mark Ablett had disappeared.

"Seems a sound man," whispered Antony to Bill. "Doesn't talk too
much."

Antony did not expect to learn much from the evidence--he knew
the facts of the case so well by now--but he wondered if
Inspector Birch had developed any new theories. If so, they
would appear in the Coroner's examination, for the Coroner would
certainly have been coached by the police as to the important
facts to be extracted from each witness. Bill was the first to