newspaper I had brought from Mr. Crawford's office.

It seemed to me important, from the fact that it was an extra,
published late the night before.

An Atlantic liner had met with a serious accident, and an extra
had been hastily put forth by one of the most enterprising of our
evening papers. I, myself, had bought one of these extras, about
midnight; and the finding of a copy in the office of the murdered
man might prove a clue to the criminal.

I then examined carefully the transfer slip I had picked up on
the Crawford lawn. It had been issued after nine o'clock the
evening before. This seemed to me to prove that the holder of
that transfer must have been on the Crawford property and near
the library veranda late last night, and it seemed to me that
this was plain common-sense reasoning, and not mere intuition or
divination. The transfer might have a simple and innocent
explanation, but until I could learn of that, I should hold it
carefully as a possible clue.




IV

THE INQUEST


Shortly before two o'clock I was back at the Crawford house and